What Could and Should Cultural Policy Do? Legitimacy, Cultural Capabilities and the Research-Governance Gap

This article examines the gap between expansive research frameworks for understanding culture’s societal significance and the realistic scope of cultural policy. Drawing on the capability approach, ecological perspectives and a layered model of the cultural field, it argues that frameworks such as cultural capabilities are valuable as critical and analytical tools but do not translate straightforwardly into policy mandates. The article identifies scope, temporal, normative, and knowledge-use mismatches between research and governance, proposes principles for a “reasonable” scope of cultural policy and calls for a more reflexive relationship between cultural policy research and cultural governance.