Learning within and through culture

What is it about?

In periods of disillusionment and crisis (war, occupation, migration, industrialisation), a greater cultural vitality seems to appear. Indeed, troubled pasts and presents have frequently acted as fertile breeding grounds for cultural productions and artistic manifestations – the cradle for a variety of adventures in cultural learning. Moreover, it is during these troubled times that culture is often radically re-enacted and re-evaluated as a medium to express unease and disgruntlement with the present, a vehicle to scrutinise problems, the means par excellence to provoke the masses in attempts to revolutionise society, or even as a kind of therapeutic tool. Thus, culture – while criticising atrocities and making radical propositions for the present and future – has frequently positioned itself at the vanguard of social critique and as a facilitator of societal change.

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Why is it important?

Recently, “cultural learning” has gained traction within the European Union and found its way into European educational policy discourses, not least in response to the widespread disil- lusionment with the European project and the lack of sociocultural coherence and resilience in times of migration and increasing political and economic tensions. Indeed, it has been called into play as a vehicle for scrutinising and overcoming the current EU crisis by generating a greater “cultural vitality and self-esteem” and by providing a solid basis for the emergence and transmission of a truly European cultural heritage.