ABSTRACT
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, cultural policy in Russia has been subject to a series of changes. Between 1991 and 2011, there was a visible trend of cultural policy decentralization and engagement with agendas and structures developed in the European Union and the United Kingdom (Belova et al., 2002; O’Connor, 2005; Tchouikina, 2010). These attempts to develop network forms of horizontal organization introduced positive ideas about cultural industries and cultural economy into national and local policies (Butenko and Razlogov, 2000; Gnedovsky, 2005; Gnedovsky and Zelentsova, 2006). During this time, the discursive practices of cultural policy absorbed Western principles of pluralism, for example, cultural equality, cultural feminism, cultural diversity, creativity, inclusion and participation (Butenko and Razlogov, 2000). This enabled the diversification of ideas and concepts about culture and its implications (aesthetic, social and economic) as a result of a nascent framework of ‘agonistic’ political debates (Mouffe, 2000). The cultural ambivalence that was supported by public demands and foreign investments significantly contributed to the diversification of national cultural policy priorities.
