For a culture of conflict

Conflicts are omnipresent in the cultural sector – from disputes over funding decisions to debates about artistic freedom. In times of new cultural policy disputes and a crumbling social consensus on the value of art and culture, cultural geographer Friederike Landau-Donnelly advocates a conscious, power-critical and difference-sensitive culture of conflict.
The discussion paper shows how implicit and explicit cultural policies influence conflict dynamics and presents a practical tool for identifying and productively addressing conflicts over values and resources.

The analysis makes it clear:

• Why conflicts should be understood as a resource for democratic negotiation processes.
• How an agonistic approach can make tensions constructively useful.
• Six specific recommendations on how cultural policy and promotion can help to shape conflicts in an inclusive and future-oriented manner.

The paper is aimed at cultural policy actors from administration, politics, associations and institutions – and at anyone who not only wants to endure conflicts in the cultural field, but also wants to use them productively.

About the author

Prof. Dr. Friederike Landau-Donnelly (she/her) is a political theorist, urban sociologist and cultural geographer. She is currently a visiting professor of cultural and social geography at Humboldt University in Berlin and is writing a monograph on conflict museums in Canada and India. Among other things, she co-edited the handbook Kultur politik (2024), Konfliktuelle Kulturpolitik (2023) and [Un]Grounding – Post Foundational Geographies (2021). Friederike Landau-Donnelly writes poetry as #PoeticAcademic.