General States of Folk Culture

 Turin – September 22-23-24, 2011

INTRODUCTION

A body of local actors involved in projects of National Culture.

The Italian Network of Folk Culture  is now a national organization whose objective is to preserve the enormous wealth of local cultural knowledge. In order to succeed, the Network is enhancing and developing a recognized system for the "diversity" that characterizes the socio-cultural activities of the territories. Through the study and the actions derived from these cultural activities, the Network seeks to re-start a dialogue with the younger generation as well as the old (rituals, festivals, places to meet real and / or virtual social networks). In order to make this work, we have created a system of "territories in network" that has no equal in Italy, and is already working on a similar path to Euro-Mediterranean area (from Egypt to Morocco, from Spain to Germany, from Romania to Greece).

The idea of Network working

The inception of the network is via the creation of projects that turn local differences into a real "cultural resistance”. Showing the strength of cultural identities is difficult in light of modern consumer society. However, by comparing local, national and international cultures, overcoming administrative boundaries, developing a greater capacity for media attention, a better management and raising of funds we can further the mission of strengthening local cultures against modern encroachment. Finally, this phenomenon also involves the real soul of an area that is expressed with a daily culture, whose events are not "imposed from above” but part of a recognized community culture.

The General States of the Folk Culture

The General States, supported by Experience Italy (Esperienza Italia), in collaboration with the Province of Turin and sponsored among others by ANCI, UPI and the Conference of Regions and Autonomous Provinces, want to be a rendezvous point between those who are involved in the planning and management of socio-cultural policies at the local and national level. The activities of the General States are addressed to private and public institutions such as museums, libraries, schools, centers of socialization and cultural projects. The idea came from participants in the territories who expressed with conviction a need for training sessions aimed at enhancing the cultural policies connected to the Network. This "Cultural Manifesto for Italy" resulted in a national meeting in which the signatories committed to raising public awareness and make proposals to government bodies.

In the 150 years from the Unification of Italy

Just in the year of the 150th anniversary of Italian Unification, our socio-cultural and training systems appear to be more fragile and fragmented, with economic difficulties and less chance of developing economies of scale, as well as raising funds to build long-term projects.
Today, the proposal of the "General States of Folk Culture" is intended as a starting point, so aimed to realize a free forum for sharing and dialoguing with citizens, voluntary sectors, institutions, economy, entrepreneurship, communication and art.

The aspect that is immediately perceived from all the territories on the Network is that the General States - the first on popular culture – are an opportunity to express the idea of ​​"country" respecting individual differences. The tissue formed in recent years has allowed the Network to work "from below," by bringing together associations from the Alpine with those from the valleys of the Apennines, joining the sea to the Po valley, considering the small countries as necessary to a unified vision of national culture.
The future of every spatial development policy will be played, in fact, precisely on this: the ability to create a dialogue on the global level with the local one, so that research and activities are at the center of a common and systematized work.