03 Feb Culture and Climate Change: podcasts and publication

panel left to right: Prof. Diana Liverman, Dr. Wallace Heim, Quentin Cooper (chair), Siobhan Davies CBE, Prof. Nigel Clark (not pictured).

Quentin Cooper:  How much an impact has culture had on politicians, policymakers and others with the power to make a difference?

Wallace Heim:   Part of me wants to say that’s the wrong question. Of course you want the arts to influence everything but that’s a very instrumental view of the arts. If you start with that premise, you’re going to get a very different kind of artistic and cultural response. You’re going to ask for education, you’re going to ask for impact, you’re going to ask for all those things that policymakers can hold on to. I’d rather give policymakers something they can’t hold on to.

A project of the Open University OpenSpace Research Centre and the Ashden Trust

Oxford 2011