E-Culture

E-culture opens up new horizons and stimulates innovation by facilitating fruitful encounters and tapping into new creative capacity. E-cultuur is aimed at decompartmentalisation, at breaking down the fences dividing all the separate little kingdoms in the arts and in society. New technology is seen as a catalyst for renewal as well as a means of participating in renewal and influencing it. The concept ‘e-culture’ (electronic culture) is used all over the world, often to describe the transformation of an entire culture under the influence of new media, new technology and in particular digitisation. E-culture policy is often economic policy ‘in disguise’ and is primarily focused on promoting innovation in order to increase competitiveness and to open up new markets. However, in the Netherlands e-culture has acquired an additional, more meaningful and broader meaning. E-culture is increasingly perceived as an independent sector within the arts field, and as a result, the Netherlands has for decades had an image of being a pioneering country for e-culture.