Rapid globalization is under way worldwide. It causes each country to take great pains to find a solution to the danger of cultural standardization. The major tasks in each country's cultural policy are programs to raise cultural identity, policies to...
Rapid globalization is under way worldwide. It causes each country to take great pains to find a solution to the danger of cultural standardization. The major tasks in each country's cultural policy are programs to raise cultural identity, policies to support cultural heritage, and problems of cultural identity. Under these circumstances, traditional cultures can be considered an alternative to overcome the danger resulted from globalization.
Korea is now experiencing social pathological symptoms such as market failures and materialism, problems of capitalistic economy under new liberalism. Extremely commercialized popular culture and standardized westernization are worsening the succession of the traditional culture.
The appropriate succession of intangible cultural heritage such as intangible cultural assets signifies more than just building up Korea's cultural competitive power in the world culture market. Accordingly, it is of great significance to Korea's future. Under severe criticism is the intangible cultural heritage policy, the central axis to protect Korea's intangible cultural heritage threatened with extinction. The problems which the present policy faces are as follows. First, the policy itself shows contradiction in pressuring selected intangible cultural assets to preserve and to follow their absurd original forms. Second, the Korean government's intervention principles in designation, support, and handing over education of intangible cultural assets are inappropriate. Third, the government's perspective in preservation and practical use of intangible cultural assets does not meet the needs of the present.
This thesis mainly claims that the guaranteed typification, one attribute of intangible cultural assets, should be at the center of the policy in order to create a new traditional culture through preservation and usage of intangible cultural assets. It also suggests that the Korean government should actively intervene in the market of intangible cultural assets to guarantee their typification. The typification of intangible cultural assets has attributes like locality, sociality, and historicity. Therefore, the promotion policy of intangible cultural assets should be made and carried out in their regional, historical, and social context.
The problems such as preserving original forms and allowing minimum intervention are discussed in the thesis to figure out the necessity and validity of the government's intervention in the culture market. The authoritative dictatorships in the past caused the Koreans to have a strong rejection against the government's intervention. That's because the government's political intention and non-expertise can be the culprits of the distorted culture market. However, the chance of a distorted culture market is unlikely in a mature democratic society.
In this thesis, France's ‘cultural development’ policy is recommended as a model the Korean counterpart should take into consideration. One reason is that there is a structural similarity in the administration setups between the two countries.
Another reason is that France is playing an active role in preservation and creative succession of intangible cultural assets threatened with extinction. It helps prevent an uncompetitive or unpopular cultural item from extinction. It also helps French culture not to be standardized by the American culture.
The preservation and practical use of intangible cultural assets are helpful in creating a new traditional culture for the future. To do this, a nation should give up the policy of preserving original forms, and should guarantee the typification of intangible cultural assets. Guaranteeing typification means that intangible cultural assets must be supported and taken care of to keep their external succession conditions and internal productive capacity. Besides, it is in line with France's ‘cultural development' policy in that it admits the variableness of intangible cultural assets. ‘Cultural development' is to guarantee cultural diversity through designated protection, and to raise cultural productive capacity by admitting a variableness of a designated item.
Cultural policy is a public sector not to be easily evaluated. The government's attempts to manage a cultural field in a strategic manner might be distorted by its citizens' anticipation of immediate effectiveness, and market logic. That is, because the effect of a cultural policy is considered to be predicted low, the government might fall into an error of making a visibly effective policy, not a policy considering the inherent value of intangible cultural assets. The final solution to this problem is to guarantee the openness for policy-making and execution.
The citizens' adaptability to a policy can be raised by the transparent goal and execution process of the policy itself. As there are internal or external changes in intangible cultural assets, or as the citizens are highly nervous about the effectiveness of a policy, the government should accept free criticism from its citizens and give them an explanation. A variety of interactive communications between the government and its citizens can make it possible for the government to facilitate a long-term policy making and execution in order to achieve a goal of creating a new traditional culture, the government's strategic goal.