Ben O'Loughlin and colleagues have published a new report for the British Council comparing how Germany and the UK approach cultural relations. The report stems from comparative research looking at how the British Council and Goethe Institute use cultural relations in Ukraine and Egypt to create social change. The new report provides the historical reasons why each country differs in their approach - how Germany and the UK each engage with the world is part of a much longer set of political histories. This report contextualises the ongoing research project, 'The Cultural Value Project: Cultural Relations in Societies in Transition', funded by the British Council and Goethe Institute. In the next year, the team will publish findings about how cultural programmes lead to different forms of social change in hot political climates. It also reveals the unexpected consequences and tensions that emerge when a society decides whose culture it values.

Read a summary of the report and download the PDF here. Thanks to co-authors Marie Gillespie, Eva Nieto McAvoy and Malte Berneaud-Kötz.