Shaping cultural policy discourse in Germany: the case of ‘Cultural Education’

This paper investigates the role of strategic argumentation on behalf of certain focusing events in the discourse on Cultural Education in Germany. The idea of an education by culture was reflected in the policy programmes of the New Cultural Policy and Socioculture that connected cultural policy to a social agenda in the 1970s. In the last few decades, it has gained further importance through the development of educational and cultural governance. By analysing policy papers, journals and compendiums by associations as well as project descriptions, the research elucidates the main arguments that policy actors refer to in lobbying for Cultural Education, and critically questions the role that is assigned to culture and cultural institutions.