The State and the Arts: Articulating Power and Subversion

Ten international academics and independent scholars contribute ten chapters to a text based on discussions and presentations made at a September 2005 workshop held at the U. of Bergen. Parts of the text were originally published in Social Analysis, Volume 51, Issue 1. The authors' explorations of relations between the state and the arts in diverse national and cultural settings fall within three main themes: cultural politics both within and beyond state administrations and state policies; public art and political contexts; and meanings of memory, social change, and the arts of the state. The chapters include case studies from specific countries--the UK, Scotland, Singapore, the Netherlands, Australia, Romania, and Germany--and regions, including the EU and an area along an ancient Mediterranean route known as the Egnatia Road. For students, academics, and researchers in anthropology, sociology, and film and media studies. Annotation c2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Judith Kapferer is Professor of Sociology at the University of Bergen. She has taught in Australia, Zambia, the United Kingdom and Norway and is the author of Being All Equal (1996) as well as numerous articles on education, urban sociology and the sociology of the arts.