Globalization, Culture, and Development ─ The UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity

The 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions provides an international policy lens for analysing broad debates on issues of cultural globalization and development. The interdisciplinary contributions in this volume offer a fresh understanding of these key issues whilst examining cultural globalization, which is conceived in terms of artistic expressions and entertainment industries and interpreted anthropologically as the rituals, symbols, and practices of everyday life. The broad gamut of theories, methods, and evidence collected by the editors outlines UNESCO's accomplishments, shortcomings, and future policy prospects. This edited collection has a clear message: The Convention is a useful and important instrument in the debate on cultural diversity, but not broad enough or sufficient to confront major challenges concerning human rights, sustainability, and cultural diversity as a whole.

Christiaan De Beukelaer is Lecturer in Cultural Management at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, UK. His research focuses primarily on the role of culture and cultural industries in human development. He is a member of the U40 Network, member of COST Action 'Investigating Cultural Sustainability,' and is winner of the 2012 Cultural Policy Research Award.

Miikka Pyykkonen is Lecturer in the Cultural Policy Master's program at the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland. He specializes in politics of cultural diversity and multiculturalism, civil society, Foucauldian methodology and analytics of power, governance of ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples, and European and Finnish immigration policies.

JP Singh is Professor of Global Affairs and Cultural Studies at George Mason University, USA. Singh has authored four monographs, edited two books, and published dozens of scholarly articles. He has advised international organizations such as UNESCO, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization.