Cultural policies and inter-municipal co-operation

This article looks at the current state of inter-municipal co-operation and thinking on how inter-municipal departments should carry out their cultural remit. At the moment, inter-municipal cultural policy has fallen behind territorial collectivities in terms of innovation. Interdepartmental co-operation often aims to impose norms on districts that are isolated or whose cultural policy is outdated. Yet inter-municipal co-operation places issues that are usually managed by sector professionals firmly back in the political arena. In some inter-municipal partnerships, cultural issues tend to be thought of as part of a wider territorial project rather than a relatively autonomous field with its own specific needs. One future challenge will be managing inter-territorial relations within inter-municipal partnerships or in partnerships between inter-municipal groupings and collectivities.
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