Cultura, Para Que?: Un Examen Comparado = Culture, What For?

This insightful book supplies detailed descriptions of cultural sectors of government in Spain, France, Colombia, Brazil, Canada, and Mexico. Presented as an empirical study, each analysis considers the elements of the state or nation and its mission to preserve and encourage artistic creativity, multimedia expression, international cooperation, and development of cultural enrichment for children. Ruiz Duenas, author of Empresa p blica (Public Corporation, Fondo de Cultura Economica), gives a complete history of the cultural development and economic priorities of constitutional and fiscal branches of government, together with extensive charts and tables. He proposes the adoption of administrative and social systems of cultural services with a balanced level in the social and administrative segments. This is appropriate, as the General Assembly of the United Nations (UNESCO) has proclaimed 2001 to be the year of the ""Dialogue Between Civilizations."" The results of this significant study suggest that current official sectors of culture need to be modernized in order to respond to the social and economic changes in today's society. Final notes and indexes make this book a valuable source of information on cultural development in the countires under consideration. Special and academic libraries, museums, and Latin American collections should acquire this book. Ninfa A. Trejo, Univ. of Arizona Lib., Tuscon