Theoretical Considerations on the Study of Cultural `Needs'

Abstract

In discussions of cultural police, a great deal hinges on how cultural `needs', or `wants' or `aspirations' are to be conceptualized, and on how they are to be empirically discovered and studied through social research. By analogy with Steven Lukes's discussion of power, three views of `cultural needs' are examined. A `one-dimensional' view is implicit in the methods commonly used by many public authorities in making policy: consultation with existing interest groups, survey research, and PPBS. Illustrations are drawn from some of the towns which took part in the Council of Europe's Fourteen Towns Project. The `one-dimensional' approach, however, is atomistic and utilitarian, and largely ignores the possible existence of latent `needs'. A `two-dimensional' view is seen in the practice of animation socio-culturelle, which seeks to make latent `needs' evident by exposing people to new cultural experience. The logic of animation is experimental and reformist, but it is doubtful whether it amounts to a theoretically informed and directed praxis. A `three-dimensional' view of cultural `needs' is seen in the writings of the Frankfurt School. For Adorno and other Frankfurt theorists, latent `needs' are more deeply rooted in the structure of modern society. They reject current popular taste as a yardstick for policy. But their theories also involve making a distinction between `true' and `false needs' and `true' and `false' enjoyment, a distinction fraught with difficulties.