Cultural Management and Policy in the “Migration Society”: Inequalities and starting points for a critical reorientation

Abstract

This paper discusses exclusions in the public cultural sector of German-speaking Europe and focuses on the need for fundamental structural changes to ensure that the “normality” of diversity in a migration society prevails in the field of arts and culture. The article presents the concept of the "migration society", which was originally developed in the context of pedagogical theory, and recommends it for a critical examination of cultural management and cultural policy. The perspective of the “migration society” looks at our society as a whole, not at migrants as imaginary groups or individuals. The focus is intersectional, taking in both the existing social standing of migrants and the processes that create and maintain asymmetries, as well as the privileges of the majority society. Based on this concept, the author argues for the adoption of a discrimination-sensitive perspective toward employees and in programs and audiences in established cultural institutions, in the independent scene and in cultural policy. She also develops starting points and measures for a migration-oriented realignment of the cultural sector.