David Looseley teaches and researches in the field of contemporary French culture and institutions. He is the author of The Politics of Fun: Cultural Policy and Debate in Contemporary France (Berg, 1995) and of numerous chapters and articles on culture and policy. He is currently working on two projects: (i) social exclusion in French cultural policy; and (ii) social, cultural and policy dimensions of French popular music. His latest book is entitled Popular Music in Contemporary France: Authenticity, Politics, Debate (Berg, 2003).
The paper is concerned with the social exclusion agenda in contemporary French cultural policy and investigates the hypothesis that a recurring social agenda for cultural policy has been a driver of policy change. It also explores the relevance of aspects of postcolonial theory to an understanding of that agenda. The tensions involved in recent attempts to evolve policies addressing interculturalism, integration and ‘emergent’ cultures (such as hip-hop) while also staying true to the French republican tradition of universalism and consensus are illuminated by France’s problematic relationship with its colonial past.