Creating the cultures of the future: cultural strategy, policy and institutions in Gramsci. Part one: Gramsci and cultural policy studies: some methodological reflections

Gramsci’s writings have rarely been discussed and used systematically by scholars in cultural policy studies, despite the fact that in cultural studies, from which the field emerged, Gramsci has been a major source of theoretical concepts. Cultural policy studies were, in fact, theorised as an anti-Gramscian project between the late 1980s and the early 1990s, when a group of scholars based in Australia advocated a major political and theoretical reorientation of cultural studies away from hegemony theory and radical politicisation, and towards reformist-technocratic engagement with the policy concerns of contemporary government and business. Their criticism of the ‘Gramscian tradition’ as inadequate for the study of cultural policy and institutions has remained largely unexamined in any detail for almost twenty years and seems to have had a significant role in the subsequent neglect of Gramsci’s contribution in this area of study. This essay, consisting of three parts, is an attempt to challenge such criticism and to provide an analysis of Gramsci’s writings, with the aim of proposing a more systematic contribution of his work to the theoretical development of cultural policy studies. In Part One, I question the use of the notion of ‘Gramscian tradition’ made by its critics and challenge the claim that it was inadequate for the study of cultural policy and institutions. In parts Two and Three, I consider Gramsci’s specific writings on questions of cultural strategy, policy and institutions, which have so far been overlooked by scholars, arguing that they provide further analytical insights to those offered by his more general concepts. More specifically, in Part Two, I consider Gramsci’s pre-prison writings and political practice in relation to questions of cultural strategy and institutions. I argue that the analysis of these early texts, which were written in the years in which Gramsci was active in party organisation and leadership, is fundamental not only for understanding the nature of Gramsci’s early and continued involvement with questions of cultural strategy and institutions, but also as a key for deciphering and interpreting cultural policy themes that he later developed in the prison notebooks, and which originated in earlier debates. Finally, in Part Three, I carry out a detailed analysis of Gramsci’s prison notes on questions of cultural strategy, policy and institutions, which enrich the theoretical underpinnings for critical frameworks of analysis as well as for radical practices of cultural strategy, cultural policy-making and cultural organisation. I then answer the question of whether Gramsci’s insights amount to a theory of cultural policy

Identification of [(GS)2AsSe)]- in rabbit bile by size-exclusion chromatography and simultaneous multielement-specific detection by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy.

An arsenic-selenium metabolite that exhibited the same arsenic and selenium X-ray absorption near-edge spectra as the synthetic seleno-bis(S-glutathionyl) arsinium ion [(GS)2AsSe]- was recently detected in rabbit bile within 25 min after intravenous injection of rabbits with sodium selenite and sodium arsenite. X-ray absorption spectroscopy did not (and cannot) conclusively identify the sulfur-donor in the in vivo sample. After similar treatment of rabbits, we analyzed the collected bile samples by size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) to monitor arsenic, selenium and sulfur simultaneously. The bulk of arsenic and selenium eluted in a single peak, the intensity of which was greatly increased upon spiking of the bile samples with synthethic [(GS)2AsSe]-. Hence, we identify [(GS)2AsSe]- as the major metabolite in bile after exposure of rabbits to selenite and arsenite. The reported SEC-ICP-AES method is the first chromatographic procedure to identify this biochemically important metabolite in biological fluids and is thus a true alternative to X-ray absorption spectroscopy, which is not available to many chemists

Synthesis, X-ray absorption spectroscopy and purification of the seleno-bis (S-glutathionyl) arsenium anion from slenide, arsenite and glutathione.

We report a new synthesis of the seleno-bis (S-glutathionyl) arsinium anion, [(GS)(2)AsSe]. An aqueous solution of bis-glutathionylarsenous acid. (GS)(2)As-OH, prepared from stoichiometric glutathione and arsenite. was reacted in situ with a solution of sodium hydrogen selenide. prepared from elemental selenium and sodium borohydride. Analysis of the arsenic and selenium K-edge X-ray absorption spectra indicated virtually quantitative formation of [(GS)(2)AsSe](-), with As-Se and As-S distances of 2.31 and 2.25 Angstrom, respectively, and the concentrated sample allowed a definitive X-ray spectroscopic characterization. Size-exclusion chromatography was used to separate [(GS)(2)AsSe] from residual borate in the reaction mixture