The Digital Dimension of European Cultural Politics: Index, Intellectual Property and Internet Governance

• Main Author: Nanna Thylstrup
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Linköping University Electronic Press 2011-10-01
• Series: Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research
• Subjects: Digitization of cultural heritage; EU cultural policy; EU citizenship; Intellectual Property; digital culture; Internet governance; privatization
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.3384/cu.2000.1525.113317

The Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) have become dominant fields for European Union (EU) politics. What used to be at the outer fringes of the EU policies has now taken centre stage. The transnational and dialogical structure of the Internet has hardwired it for international cultural politics, yet the very same structure also works to erode the very territorial foundation of traditional cultural politics. Given the delicate and complex terrain cultural politics traverse in international politics, and the trailblazing progression of the Internet, it seems on-line cultural politics is not just the application of existing cultural politics to cyberspace but a new field to be explored, analyzed and taught. The present article maps a constituent European cultural boundary on the WWW as the EU has circumscribed it and places this cultural node within a wider array of Europeanization and globalization processes.