HuK-Forum: "Culture and... Class, Gender, Generation" by Mirko Petrić

“Culture and... Class, Gender, Generation: Cultural participation in post-transformation Croatia”

Mirko Petrić
Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar (Croatia)

This talk discusses the realities of contemporary cultural participation in a South-East European country following the period of its post-socialist transformation. Until relatively recently, the influences of the socialist cultural policies, privileging a diffusionist, high-culture-centred model, were felt in Croatia both in the realms of cultural consumption and taste. Drawing on extensive sets of recent empirical data, the lecture explores how these historical legacies now intersect with contemporary dynamics of class, gender, and generation. The findings discussed suggest a more complex relationship between social space and cultural practices than that assumed by legacy cultural policies. While class remains the primary structuring principle of the field of cultural practices, generation and gender are shown to significantly modify its effects. Special attention in the analysis is devoted to these modifications, the understanding of which opens new avenues for cultural policy intervention.

Mirko Petrić is an expert adviser at the Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences, Regional Centre Split, Croatia. He has participated in research projects focusing on cultural and urban policy funded by the British Council, UNESCO-IFCD, the Kultura Nova Foundation, and the EU’s Horizon 2020 program. He was among the founders of the Art Academy in Split, where he teaches media sociology and semiotics as an adjunct senior lecturer.