The Framing Game: Toward De-provincialising Dutch Cultural Policy

This chapter discusses the use of the term cultural entrepreneurship in strategic documents produced by Dutch government and cultural institutions. I specifically focus on recent history (2012-2016), starting off with a historical sketch from the early 1980s onwards. In this sketch, I identify a dichotomy of values that can still be observed in recent sources: a narrow, economic interpretation of the term versus a broad, cultural interpretation. The government frames entrepreneurship as having to do with creating societal connections. In strategic plans, cultural institutions show considerable awareness of societal issues but do not label these concerns as belonging to entrepreneurship. Instead, the term is predominantly reserved for financial strategic deliberations. I do not introduce an a priori definition of cultural entrepreneurship but look at the construction of meaning in written documents. Finally, I extrapolate a possible conundrum of cultural entrepreneurship in the Netherlands based on the suggestion that attempts to connect culture to transnational societal agendas may be hindered by a provincialising effect of Dutch cultural policy.