عنوان

The Market for Ethics: Culture and the Neoliberal Turn at UNESCO

Number

42697

.Language of Text, Soundtrack etc

eng

Title Proper

The Market for Ethics: Culture and the Neoliberal Turn at UNESCO

First Statement of Responsibility

/ by Michelle Fawcett

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

Department of Cinema Studies, New York University, New Yory, USA

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

, 2009.

Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item

507p.

Other Physical Details

: ills, tab.

Text of Note

Code E.Dissertation: 62

Text of Note

Bibliography

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D

Text of Note

This dissertation seeks to contextualize and theorize the institutionalization of public–private partnerships at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Once considered a radical organization by the U.S. government, UNESCO now partners with corporations to launch projects that claim, among other things, to promote cultural diversity, bridge the digital divide or build intellectual property regimes. From peace to development as its institutional goal, from state to market as its mechanism of delivery and from the universal citizen to the local entrepreneur as its subject, UNESCO is undergoing a dramatic shift in organizational focus, one better designed to serve corporate interests than foster public debate about the meanings and uses of culture. This dissertation will examine how culture is mobilized as a promising new resource in the market for ethics. Chapter One traces the historical battle over uses of cultural discourse at UNESCO, which eventually led to a role for the private sector at the organization; Chapter Two illustrates how the practice of corporate culture at UNESCO helps to embed the partnership agenda; Chapters Three and Four show how corporations use the discourses of cultural diversity and cultural universalism to expand market share through partnership with UNESCO. Each newly forged connection between culture and the market remains inherently contradictory, however, producing discursive openings for the creation of alternatives to the neoliberal paradigm.

Dates

Thesis advisor

McCarthy, Anna