NON-INSTITUTIONAL AGENTS OF CULTURAL POLICY IN SERBIA, MONTENEGRO AND MACEDONIA
Text topic: Studies
Text author: Предраг Цветичанин
This paper presents the results of a study which investigated cultural policy partakers active outside the system of public/state cultural institutions in Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia (non-governmental organizations dealing with culture, independent cultural associations, artists associations, informal art groups, non-profit cultural clubs, etc). Total of 112 independent cultural scene partakers participated in the study – 71 in Serbia, 22 in Macedonia and 19 in Montenegro. The analysis relied on a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods: a survey intended primarily to gauge five groups of capacities of the organizations surveyed (human, technical, financial, managerial and social) and, on the other hand, semi-structured interviews which provided data on and evaluations of cooperation at various levels (with other stakeholders of the independent scene, with donors, decision makers, the business community, media); insight into the most important problems facing non-institutional partakers of cultural policy and ways of overcoming these problems; as well as independent cultural scene partakers’ opinions regarding future directions of the scene’s development in their country and in the region. Out of the multitude of information gathered in the course of the study, we will restrict ourselves here to a brief presentation of the results concerning: a) the characteristics of the partakers of the independent cultural scene; b) the conditions under which the scene operates; c) cooperation between independent cultural scene partakers and several groups of their important stakeholders; and d) the measurement of the capacities of organizations belonging to the independent cultural scene in Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia. Finally, we will also draw attention to some of the areas in which the creators of cultural policy in the above-mentioned countries might choose to intervene should they wish to further the activities of the independent cultural scene in their community.