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Visions of Europe

Cultural technologies of nation-states

Södertörn University College, Sweden, goran.bolin{at}sh.se

With the expansion of the European Union eastwards, nations have adopted various strategies for being included in the European community. This article discusses examples of cultural technologies used by post-communist countries in aligning with Western Europe. It is argued that the phenomenon is in fact not new, as the marketing of nations has occurred since at least the World’s Fairs of the 19th century. However, while the World’s Fairs addressed the nation-states of high industrialism, cultural technologies are the features used in a post-industrialized context, where it is more important to impress with abilities of symbolic production rather than with traditional industrial production. In terms of modernization processes, it can be argued that the increased emphasis on symbolic production indicates a shift from techno-industrial modernization to techno-cultural modernization.

Key Words: culture • Eurovision Song Contest • ideologies • media technologies • modernization • nationalism • World’s Fairs

International Journal of Cultural Studies, Vol. 9, No. 2, 189-206 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1367877906064030


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