On 13 May, the Ministry of Culture, through the Directorate-General for Cultural Rights, will present at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza the report Culture as a global public, essential, basic and first-necessity good, a publication coordinated by Fundación Gabeiras that places culture at the centre of the debate on cultural rights and public policies. Attendance at the event will be by invitation, and it will also be streamed online.
Pau Rausell and Tony Murphy contribute to the report Culture as a global public, essential, basic and first-necessity good
On 13 May, the Ministry of Culture, through the Directorate-General for Cultural Rights, will present at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza the report Culture as a global public, essential, basic and first-necessity good, a publication coordinated by Fundación Gabeiras that places culture at the centre of the debate on cultural rights and public policies. Attendance at the event will be by invitation, and it will also be streamed online.
Among the contributors to this work are Pau Rausell, from Econcult, and Tony Murphy, from Culturalink, together with an interdisciplinary group of specialists including Alfons Martinell, Patricia Gabeiras, Roger Dedeu, Inmaculada González, José María Lasalle, Tere Badia, Ana Villarrolla, María Lorenzo, Belén Álvarez and Paula Ráez. The report was drafted by Jesús Prieto de Pedro.
The document starts from a key observation: in recent years, there has been an increasing use of expressions that define culture as a “basic and first-necessity good”, a “global public good” or an “essential good”. The report argues that this evolution should not remain at a rhetorical level but should be translated into effective instruments to guarantee cultural rights, from their legal recognition to their implementation in public policies and in the everyday functioning of institutions.
Across its different chapters, the publication examines the meaning of these concepts from legal and economic perspectives, analyses their place within the Spanish constitutional framework and proposes an understanding of culture as an objective guarantee of cultural rights. In this regard, the text argues that considering culture as a global public good strengthens its collective value and its centrality in democratic life, while expanding the scope of action of international organisations and states in its protection and provision.
Among its main recommendations, the report proposes the creation of a national working group to advance the conceptual and legislative definition of notions such as “basic good”, “first-necessity good” and “essential good”; urges UNESCO to establish a forum of experts on culture as a global public good; and calls for this debate to be included in the agenda of Mondiacult 2025 in Barcelona. It also suggests the development of a White Paper for a Law on the public cultural system, aimed at strengthening the regulatory framework around these principles.
The participation of Pau Rausell and Tony Murphy in this publication reinforces Econcult’s presence in a strategic debate on the role of culture in contemporary societies: not only as a field of creation and expression, but as a shared good that is essential for social cohesion, community building and the effective exercise of cultural rights.
