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RESEARCH PRODUCT

L'action culturelle mise à nu par ses métiers (1788-1988)

subject

description

Cultural development has been the object of a number of studies, especially in its relations with cultural policy -or policies- or even through the theoretical study and implementation of cultural action, one of its preferred functions. Within these two fields of research, neither occupational sociologists nor scientists working in the area of information and communication have ever singled out cultural actors as a professional group for the object of a study. The current research intends to explore this issue of the professionality of cultural actors, particularly in so far as concerns their contribution to cultural development. After having stated that these practitioners belong to a group with blurred edges, which does not allow for definition of a homogeneous or structured profession, it will be necessary to consider the reasons for this lack of professionality. It reveals a lack of social legitimacy for a vocation whose ties to democratic process are affirmed loud and clear; this phenomenon mirrors the fundamentals of the French republican ideal. From there began a twofold exploration, synchronic and diachronic. This study reveals how, at the intersection of two other professions -namely journalism and teaching, which also contribute to democracy- cultural actors have failed to build an autonomous professional territory. Divided between the fundamental principles of the freedoms of expression and thought, and their dependence on the artistic field versus the absence of a public space that has the potential to be the frame for a true development, these actors are at the heart of a hyperactive cultural sector, which is motivated by sometimes contradictory principles: as such they represent a group of interlocking functions, with each link having its own weakness, and that prevents the definition of a professionality as much as of a profession.