Abstract
This article retraces the discussions on cultural policies in Southern and South-Eastern Europe during the eponymous workshop at the CEPEL 40th anniversary colloquium. We propose to reflect on the trajectories of cultural policies in Southern Europe over the last few decades, on the specificity of cultural policies within this geographical area, their singularities and their convergences with European integration and, more broadly, to the processes of institutionalisation of public intervention in the field of culture. We also look back at recent movements in the politicisation of culture, evoking the case of illiberal regimes and movements for whose South-East Europe provides a relevant laboratory for analysis.