In its 2021 vision for the next 25 years of global cooperation the United Nations calls for ‘inclusive, networked, and effective multilateralism to better respond to humanity’s most pressing challenges’ (Our Common Agenda, 2021). In September this year, the Summit of the Future: Multilateral solutions for a better tomorrow will echo that call, aiming to reaffirm and enhance cooperation on sustainable development through ‘a reinvigorated multilateral system that is better positioned to positively impact people’s lives’ (Summit of the Future, 2024).

This was the context for the most recent International Cultural Relations Research Alliance (ICCRA) conference, in October and November 2023. ICRRA is a global network of researchers and practitioners convened by the British Council in partnership with the ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) to promote new perspectives on the areas in which we work. ICRRA members are drawn from around the world, united by a commitment to better understand and articulate how international collaboration in the arts, education and civil society can build trust and understanding, promote collaboration, and enhance and sustain dialogue between people and cultures. The conference was an attempt to bring these cultural relations perspectives into discussion with experts on multilateralism and sustainable development. We aimed to provide a platform to consider how cultural relations can support multilateral and regional organisations to meet the aims of Our Common Agenda and the Summit of the Future.

Promoting new research, insight and discussion

The programme included keynote speeches from Alexandra Xanthaki, UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, and Yudhishthir Raj Isar, Professor Emeritus of Cultural Policy Studies, Department of Global Communications, The American University of Paris (AUP). A range of discussion panels and case study presentations featured experts from Artists at Risk Connection, ASEAN Foundation, Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), Culture Funding Watch, Southern Voice, UNESCO, United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO), Universidad de La Laguna, Universidad Iberoamericana, University of Siena … and others.

The conference explored the existence of diverse and at times conflicting understandings of multilateralism, noting how different perspectives are often deeply situated within local contexts. Contributors stressed the need to understand and acknowledge these contexts, allowing for the expression of localised approaches within a wider system of commonly agreed universal rights – including cultural rights (which the conference stressed was a fundamental aspect of human rights). Case studies highlighted how cultural relations can promote the empowerment and active participation of local communities within these debates. This helped to articulate the concept of a people-centred approach to development, with its emphasis on the centring of local expertise and the need to connect practitioners and policy makers with the ‘grassroots’, including young people and indigenous communities. Cutting through the conference, however, was the recognition that this approach will be fruitless unless it also addresses power imbalances and actively supports the genuine inclusion of currently unrepresented and marginalised groups.

Visit the ICRRA research repository to view a policy briefing paper drawing out these themes, along with full transcripts from the event. Recordings of each session and a summary highlights video are available on YouTube. This complements recent British Council research and insight on the role of culture within sustainable development, including our essay collection on Cultural Heritage for Inclusive Growth and The Missing Foundation report on culture’s place within and beyond the UN Sustainable Development Goals. These topics are also central to our new podcast, Our World, Connected.

An early-career perspective

One of the aims of ICRRA is to engage with early-career researchers and practitioners, both as conference speakers and audience members. Shruti Shenoy is a project manager and creative producer in live entertainment, music and film, with an interest in cultural policy, research and governance of the sector. As part of an MA in Cultural Policy, Relations and Diplomacy at Goldsmiths, University of London, Shruti participated in the 2023 conference. We are pleased to share Shruti’s own reflections and insights below, offering a flavour of the rich debates and discussions that the event provoked.

‘As an international student in the first term of my MA in Cultural Policy, Relations and Diplomacy, the ICRRA conference gave me significant insights on the real-world workings of international cultural relations. With the dynamics between countries changing rapidly, and the threat of climate change looming large, hopes for a peaceful and equitable future rest heavily on the role of culture. To reach this eventual goal of harmony and peace we need to listen to each other, especially to those voices that have been kept out of the mainstream because of power structures and status quo, and work in solidarity with one another.

One of my biggest takeaways, which I have spent a large portion of my time thinking about since the conference, has been the role of culture in conflict. As cultural practitioners, we focus on using culture to bring people together, and rightly so. We do not, however, tend to pay an equal amount of attention to culture and identity as a cause of the global and local conflicts we see around us. Culture is a double-edged sword, and a rather dangerous one. As art and culture practitioners, we need to keep that in mind and make it part of the wider culture narrative. I have spent the past decade of my career working with artists and brands to identify need gaps and create art, music and film based intellectual properties to fill those gaps. As practitioners in this sector, we need to take on the responsibility of using our platforms and communities to address these larger issues of culture-based conflict. We need to help rewrite the narrative of using culture for human connection, both at a local and an international level.

Secondly, we need to decolonise and dismantle the status quo at its very core. As we seek stronger cultural relations internationally, we need to identify existing power structures and challenge them rather than reinforce them. One way of achieving this can be by adding adequate, appropriate representation to our conversations and giving a platform to all kinds of minorities – ethnic, racial, gender, religious etc, – to voice their opinions and empower their communities.

Finally, as cultural policymakers and practitioners, we need to work with other departments within the system. Culture, as a sector, cannot function in a vacuum. Given that culture is both a cause of and solution to varied conflicts, it is time we started working across sectors. Be it healthcare or green skills, employment or education, these sectors identify and work with very human problems that impact real people. We can only properly understand and address these human issues through culture.’

Many thanks to Shruti and to all the contributors to the 2023 conference.