The Promotion of Cultural Values

Abstract

The defense and administration of cultural and environmental heritage is an issue that cannot be addressed except in relation to current concepts and trends in science and policy. This is shown by the analysis of documents issued by the UNESCO Intergovernmental Conferences on Cultural Policies. From these documents, we can extract a number of ideas that, first outlined in Venice in 1970, were gradually completed in subsequent meetings—Helsinki, 1972; Yogyakarta, 1973; Accra, 1975; Bogotá, 1978; and Mexico, 1982—through the incorporation of new contributions. These contributions were the result of a deeper treatment of the issues, made unavoidable by the geopolitical changes taking place in various regions of the world.

These new ideas gradually shaped a new “global political concept”, which was not assumed in the same way by the different countries and regions that make up the international community and even less so by the promoters of change.

Our starting point is a reflection on the factors that have led, in the last decade, to a renewed treatment of issues related to the importance of developing cultural policies and defending cultural heritage.

On the basis of ideas from several Latin American authors and recent official documents that we consider important, we analyze and attempt to ground our own practice in relation to the promotion of cultural values, seeking to answer the questions of how and for what purpose—or for whom—we construct our proposals.