The Rise of Rhizomatic Cultural Policies

Abstract

The cultural policy agenda has traditionally centered around the arts, heritage and crafts, however, since the 1990s public perceptions about what could be defined as culture started changing. The author uses Deleuze and Guattari's concept of the rhizome as a metaphor to describe the new model of cultural governance. The article argues that cultural policy is becoming increasingly rhizomatic branching out to other policy areas adding more items to its core agenda. The interaction between the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport in the UK is examined as an exploratory case to illustrate the argument.