The 26th ENCATC Congress for Cultural Management and Policies

On the occasion of the Centenary of the Great Union, the National Institute for Research and Cultural Training (NIRCT) will host the 26^th ENCATC Congress for Cultural Management and Policies, between the 26^th and the 29^th of September. The event will take place (in English) under the aegis of the European Year of Cultural Heritage. ENCATC is the European Network on Cultural Management and Policies, the largest organisation of its kind in Europe, and NIRCT is its first member from Romania.

As local organiser, NIRCT is inviting you to participate in this Congress, which will be attended by professors, experts, researchers, artists, managers and students from Europe, North America, Asia and Africa. On the occasion of this event, you will find out the most recent trends/evolutions in the field of cultural management, education, training, practice and research in the field of cultural management and cultural policies.

The programme of the congress will include: speeches of leading researchers on the current cultural transformations; debates on the implications of the heritage and interdisciplinary dialogues; study visits for the contextualisation of the main themes of the Congress; poster exhibition presenting the most interesting studies; the 5^th Annual Award Ceremony for the ENCATC Research Prizes; the ENCATC session for Education and Research; the 11^th Forum of Researchers and Young Researchers; as well as opportunities to interact with professionals in cultural management, education, research and practices in the field of cultural policies.

During the Congress, experts from all over the world will share their points of view, will analyse the most recent research data and will answer the questions:

• What is the Europeans’ cultural horizon?
• Shall we keep or break cultural continuity in Europe?
• How do we reconcile the old and the new order?
• How can we consider each turbulence affecting the countries of Europe, the European values, affecting us all and our organisations, on a daily basis?

Why this theme?

Culture is changing its direction. New paradigms, habits and norms, new symbols and languages, new concepts, new demands and expressions are converging and influencing individual, community and organisational behaviours. People all around the world are changing: they are facing radical challenges that transform their way of thinking, of interacting, of working and living – on various levels. We are all the witnesses and the actors of a vast global transition. We are building or destroying values, identities, economies and lives, while our main reference points are continually shaped by various turbulent phenomena.

This major international meeting will focus on the current cultural transformations – in accordance with a socio-anthropological perspective, with a view to analysing the role of education and research in shaping the process through which culture and values are acquired and transmitted. Moreover, we must reconsider the contribution to a common European cultural heritage by adding new sustainable perspectives and viewpoints, harnessed with the purpose of development.

Key questions that open up our perspective and possibilities of facing the current transformations.

We cannot but agree with the digital transition, with the climate changes, with the intercultural interactions. Financial crises and terrorism are shocking and disastrous, they generate transformations whose dimensions and directions are hard to foresee – in the individual, social and economic symbolism, in status and organisation.

We cannot ignore the dramatic effect on the planet’s sustainability and intercultural interaction, we cannot ignore terrorism and digital changes. This way the order and status of our social, economic, individual symbols are demolished. We do not know where these changes are taking us and where we are going, as a society or as individuals.  

In the perspective of the European Year of Cultural Heritage, ENCATC urges for an answer to these huge current problems of the world. ENCATC urges for openness to a more profound reflection on the interactions between the past and the present, for practices to sustain the future of the cultural legacy, for a necessary approach towards the current cultural management, towards educational policies, towards development, good practices and an innovative research for the building of coherent, future-oriented scenarios, based on knowledge, abilities and skills to allow this transition.