Cultural Policy in the Westfjords, Iceland.
Iceland’s devolved approach to public administration defers responsibility for governance and administration of the 2013 National Cultural Policy to lower levels of government. The application of policy is a comparatively recent practice in Iceland, and the government strives for best practice and professionalism with the implementation. Offering public participation and access for all, the national cultural policy ensures that residents in even the remotest parts of the country are provided with cultural opportunities afforded to all Icelanders. To understand how lower levels of government have interpreted the national cultural policy, the thesis investigates how policy has been enacted in one of the least populated regions – the Westfjords. Employing secondary research, interviews, and personal communication, the scope of the study was of cultural policy as it exists both formally and informally to answer the question: “What is the cultural policy of the Westfjords?” The research findings are illuminating and give an overview of the cultural landscape in the region. They reveal a gap between rhetoric and reality, which raises additional questions that require exploration.
Menningarstefna, Vestfirðir, Sveitarstjórnir, Dreifbýli
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