Digital Technologies and Traditional Cultural Expressions : A Positive Look at a Difficult Relationship

Burri, Mira (2010). Digital Technologies and Traditional Cultural Expressions : A Positive Look at a Difficult Relationship. International journal of cultural property, 17(1), pp. 33-63. Cambridge University Press 10.1017/S0940739110000032

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© Cambridge University Press, published in INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CULTURAL PROPERTY (2009) Vol. 17, No. 1, p. 33 - 63

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Digital technologies have often been perceived as imperilling traditional cultural expressions (TCE). This angst has interlinked technical and socio-cultural dimensions. On the technical side, it is related to the affordances of digital media that allow, among other things, instantaneous access to information without real location constraints, data transport at the speed of light and effortless reproduction of the original without any loss of quality. In a socio-cultural context, digital technologies have been regarded as the epitome of globalisation forces - not only driving and deepening the process of globalisation itself but also spreading its effects. The present article examines the validity of these claims and sketches a number of ways in which digital technologies may act as benevolent factors. We illustrate in particular that some digital technologies can be instrumentalised to protect TCE forms, reflecting more appropriately the specificities of TCE as a complex process of creation of identity and culture. The article also seeks to reveal that digital technologies - and more specifically the Internet and the World Wide Web - have had a profound impact on the ways cultural content is created, disseminated, accessed and consumed. We argue that this environment may have generated various opportunities for better accommodating TCE, especially in their dynamic sense of human creativity.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

02 Faculty of Law > Department of Economic Law > World Trade Institute
10 Strategic Research Centers > World Trade Institute

02 Faculty of Law > Department of Economic Law > NCCR International Trade Regulation
02 Faculty of Law > Department of Economic Law > Institute of European and International Economic Law

UniBE Contributor:

Burri, Tihomira

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 340 Law

ISSN:

0940-7391

Publisher:

Cambridge University Press

Language:

English

Submitter:

Tihomira Burri

Date Deposited:

26 Aug 2014 09:23

Last Modified:

02 Mar 2023 23:24

Publisher DOI:

10.1017/S0940739110000032

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.51539

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/51539

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