The place of culture in south american regional integration: an analysis of MERCOSUR cultural in the context of post-liberal regionalism

Abstract

Considering the formation, at the beginning of the 21st century, of the Latin American progressive cycle and the so-called post-liberal regionalism, as well as the evolution of international cultural policy, the article addresses the impacts of such transformations on South American cultural integration, discussing the advances, limits and contradictions that marked Mercosur Cultural between 2003 and 2015. Based on document analysis and theoretical discussions related to regionalism, cultural policies and decolonial perspectives in Latin America, the work discusses issues such as the discourse on culture in the political-diplomatic spheres of the bloc; institutional strengthening and financing of culture; the development of regional cultural projects; the construction of a regional cultural diplomacy; and the challenges related to the transversality of culture. Although Mercosur Cultural has advanced in the period analyzed in consolidating a privileged space for regional cultural cooperation and cultural diplomacy, its achievements were limited by the low institutionality of culture at national levels and its lack of prioritization in the political agendas of the governments of that period. In this way, the work aims to contribute to the debate on the place of culture in regional development and its centrality for the construction of a counter-hegemonic, autonomous, and emancipatory Latin American integration project.