Arts & International Affairs: Volume 2, Issue 1 | Page 111

contexts, as for example in the case of audiovisual productions, their role
is restricted and minor in comparison to market influences, technological
prerogatives, or policies of large integrations such as the European Union.
Moreover, their possibility to integrate into global markets is vulnerable
both conceptually and financially. This is, for example, seen when cultural
policies support specialized cultural networks that integrate cultural agents
through projects and defined tasks which need not be influenced by state
cultural interests (Švob-Đokić ����). Networks remain far more flexible, often
less professional and less permanent, which limits possible cultural policy
influences on them. Furthermore, the notion of cultural space scarcely
contextualizes the possibilities for cultural policies to function at horizontal
local, national, and regional levels. In this sense, the here identified cultural
stratification remains almost untouched by national cultural policies and
their outcomes at either local or regional levels.
A Concluding Note
In an effort to trace the recent processes of cultural change in Southeast
European post-socialist countries, a type of cultural stratification driven by
global influences is identified as an indicator of new cultural settings and of
redefined cultural spaces. The context of globalism and global influences are
supportive of a holistic concept that sees culture as a complex, innovative,
and adaptive system of values, not strictly limited by state borders. In this
respect impacts of new technologies and intensive cultural communication
are particularly valued. Global influences inspire an inner restructuration of
national cultures and directly affect their structures. Such restructuration is
generally reflected in: constantly increasing and intensive cultural exchange
empowered by new technologies and the media; technological impacts on
cultural production and creativity particularly visible in the development of
cultural and creative industries; permanent growth of cultural distribution
and consumption of cultural products, connected to the emergence and
development of cultural markets; and, in an increased participation in
culture, particularly through the processes of co-creativity. Moreover, these
global influences are ever more reflected in cultural creativity and new types
of cultural sensitivity, which is particularly sustained by individual artists
and, in organizational sense, by NGOs devoted to cultural activities.
The response of the newly established cultural policies to such new cultural
developments may be crucial. However the Southeast European cultural
policies are only partly responding to the new challenges of cultural growth
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