Cultural Activities of the Narbonnaise en Méditerranée Regional Nature Park: An Evaluative Analysis and Suggestions for Consideration in the Context of the Charter Revision

Interim Scientific Justification, March 30, 2022

Emmanuel Négrier

As part of the revision of its charter (2011–2022), the Narbonnaise en Méditerranée Regional Nature Park sought to collaborate with a research team to conduct a specific assessment of its cultural component. It identified the Center for Political and Social Studies (CEPEL) as the partner for this project, and CEPEL appointed Emmanuel Négrier, its director, to oversee this collaborative agreement. He enlisted the expertise of two external partners to equip himself with the resources for an in-depth field survey: Patricia Oudin, and the research and consulting firm Doux Août.

The choice of CEPEL stems from the nature of the research on culture that has been conducted there over the past 20 years. The analysis of regional cultural policies is one of the laboratory’s major areas of research. In recent years, several lines of research have contributed to expanding our understanding of the links between cultural policies, regions, and social practices. We refer in particular to research on the role of culture in shifts in territorial scale (Négrier, Teillet 2008, 2021), and on festivals as a territorial dynamic (Négrier & Jourda, 2007), as a social practice (Négrier & Djakouane, 2010), and as a subject of comparative analysis at the European level (Négrier, Bonet, Guerrin, 2013), and finally as a “total” social and territorial object (Djakouane & Négrier, 2021).

In addition, CEPEL has developed two new areas of research that examine culture from fresh perspectives.

The first is part of the many debates and controversies (professional, political, and civic) surrounding cultural policies related to participation. This new research focus is highlighted in an international book published in 2021, which examines the rise of the issue of participation in cultural policies across Europe (Dupin-Meynard & Négrier 2021). It is the result of more than five years of action research within a European network: BeSpectACTive!.

The second strand takes a more theoretical approach and is part of another European network, Uncharted, coordinated by the University of Barcelona. Its aim is to measure the social value of culture, and it involves comparative, theoretical, and empirical research. Finally, we should mention the Stronger Peripheries network, which, also in the cultural sphere, aims to take a specific look at the conditions for implementing cultural policies in “the” Souths, and to propose an alternative to the cultural policy frameworks that are (between market hegemony and public governance) often the preserve of the central countries of a more northern Europe.

To date, little research has been devoted to the issue of cultural policies implemented by organizations whose mission is not strictly tied to a specific discipline, field, or sector, but rather stems from the ambition of a regional initiative. Yet one might think that this is one of the contemporary contexts in which culture, as a legitimate focus of public action, is and will be considered and recognized. And it is precisely the purpose of Regional Natural Parks to work on this new horizon of cultural policies. In this regard, the Narbonnaise en Méditerranée Regional Nature Park, as it reflects on the challenges associated with renewing its charter, constitutes a particularly interesting setting for the development of CEPEL’s work on this point (As we shall see later in this document, the PNRNM has structured its cultural activities around an original initiative, the Archives du Sensible, which is supported by a committee of experts, of which Emmanuel Négrier was a member until April 2017). It is therefore logical that a collaboration agreement has been established to formalize these two converging objectives: scientific development and reflective analysis of 10 years of cultural and artistic programming.

As will be seen later in this document, the PNRNM established itself in the cultural sector through an innovative initiative, theArchives du Sensible, which is supported by a committee of experts of which Emmanuel Négrier was a member until April 2017.

The National Research Program and Cultural Initiatives: What They Are and Are Not, and What the Charter Says About Them

One point must be made clear from the outset regarding a Regional Nature Park’s cultural project. It is not a cultural policy, in the sense that its responsibilities do not include managing facilities or establishing a general-purpose cultural department that oversees the entire sector, backed by the necessary legal authority and resources. A single example suffices to illustrate this: the park’s cultural activities, excluding salaries, amount to approximately 60,000 euros annually. By comparison, the cultural budget of the Greater Narbonne Urban Community stands at over 2 million euros (2.3 million in 2022). In France generally, few Regional Nature Parks (PNRs) deviate from this rule of cultural activities without managing a specific institution or sector (examples include the Livradois-Forez Regional Nature Park, which manages a public library network, or the Brenne Regional Nature Park in Berry, which, among other things, organizes a cultural season).
On the other hand, a PNR’s cultural activities are less about pursuing cultural and artistic goals “in and of themselves,” as a specialized cultural administration would do, and more about situating its cultural and artistic activities in relation to a specific territory and other areas of intervention. This distinctiveness does not, however, make the park’s cultural activities subordinate to its other missions.

“I’ve never understood why some parks have a cultural policy that has nothing to do with the concept of territory. For me, this concept of territory is a gem. It’s not about being rooted in a place. It’s about real, imaginary, or dreamt-of territory. It inspires any artist. It’s a sensitive approach to territory, which is in itself a singularity.” (Interview with Marion Thiba, November 19, 2021)

The cultural activities of a Regional Nature Park are thus characterized by three main features.

On the one hand, it is an artistic initiative driven by extrinsic objectives of general interest that align with the broader goals of the Regional Nature Park. Here, culture is “at the service” of these goals championed by sectors focused on identifying the region, fostering a “shared culture,” and extending—through its own means and criteria—efforts to raise awareness about the environment, heritage (historical, tangible, and intangible), biodiversity, and so on.

In this regard, cultural and artistic initiatives in this context might seem somewhat instrumental, but that is precisely the nuance: cultural and artistic initiatives operate according to their own criteria and do not place themselves at the service of a particular sector by denying their own artistic autonomy; thus, an artist is not an educational facilitator when working in a school setting; he is not a whistleblower or an environmental activist, nor a scientist when he addresses climate risks; he is not a heritage curator when he explores the ancient traces of a space; he is not a geographer when he examines the old border, nor an urban planner when he discusses the chalets of Gruissan. It is because of this artistic autonomy that the Ministry of Culture decides whether or not to direct its own cultural funding. This is precisely the difficulty of labeling the artist a “mediator,” a role that is both recognized (in the name of art’s social utility) and contested by the artists themselves (in the name of rejecting instrumentalization). The role of mediator can only be assumed by recalling that it is grounded in the very foundations of creation, and not through the transformation of the artist into a “territorial mediator” (François Pouthier, “The Artistic Presence in Regional Nature Parks. Portrait of the Artist as Territorial Mediator,” in Geography in Action or the Territories of Geographers, Publications of the MSH Aquitaine, 2021)

Second, this initiative is part of a project-based approach that is open to innovation and research, and for these reasons is receptive to unexpected successes as well as the risk of failure. Whether successful or not, the PNR’s initiatives are therefore not intended to become permanent fixtures in the park’s policy. The purpose of the Charter, which is regularly revised, is to assess the merits of a given project within a specific space and at a specific time. This applies to the “Paysages en chantier” initiative, an event that, in 2021, took place in every municipality within the park, in close collaboration with local governments, residents, the Departmental Archives, and artists, and which proved to be a resounding success each time.

Third, based on this project logic, the Regional Nature Park (PNR) acts less as a policy-maker and more as a committed mediator serving culture, complementing the cultural initiatives of other public actors in the region. Here’s a statistic: 15 of the 22 municipalities that make up the PNR in 2022 are also members of the Greater Narbonne Urban Community. Consequently, the park’s contribution to the cultural life of its region logically fits into the broader scope of the EPCI’s cultural initiatives, as well as those of other services (e.g., the Departmental Archives), associations (e.g., Cinémaude for its traveling film program), and agencies (e.g., Occitanie en Scène, Occitanie Livre et Lecture, Occitanie Film). This role of active intermediation, which François Pouthier, in his dissertation on the cultural activities of Regional Nature Parks, describes as “assembler,” implies a cooperative atmosphere that, as we shall see, is present to a highly uneven degree.

It is in light of these three characteristics that we will assess, in particular, whether the PNR’s resources are adequate for implementing the commitments set forth in the charter. To make this assessment, we must first understand the nature of these commitments.

Since its inception in 2003, the PNR’s cultural project has had a twofold goal that is only imperfectly reflected in the headings of the 2001–2022 charter: 3.3.1. Understanding and showcasing the cultural heritage of the Narbonnaise region; 3.3.2. Bringing the heritage of the Narbonnaise region to life and sharing it. A reading of these two main themes might suggest that the park’s cultural activities are entirely focused on a heritage-based approach. This would not be out of place, given how widespread such an approach is in most Regional Nature Parks in France. However, an examination of the content proposed in relation to these two chapters shows that this is inaccurate on two counts.

The first is that the heritage approach is both comprehensive in terms of the territory and limited in terms of public action. Among the traditional components of a heritage policy, it is primarily promotion activities that form part of the La Narbonnaise project. Other public authorities, including the State, the Regional Council, and Grand Narbonne, exercise their responsibilities in this territory through protection and conservation initiatives. Thus, the building rehabilitation program in certain municipalities relies on regional funding channeled through Grand Narbonne. The PNR, for its part, incorporates these heritage functions only marginally. Moreover, it lacks the investment funds that would allow it to act in this capacity, as well as the legitimacy that would be conferred upon it in this area by the municipalities, on the one hand, and the supra-municipal authorities, on the other. That said, the PNR’s role in heritage promotion involves a variety of actions that demonstrate that, in its own way, it is a major player in a certain process of heritage preservation. In a region characterized by significant flows (tourism, suburbanization, transportation networks), it directs attention toward cultures rooted in memory, traditions, and the enduring cultural life experienced within this area. Publications on the former border, on cultural actors, on trades and communities are not merely forms of resistance—opposing flows with stocks, change with permanence. For, as these heritage projects demonstrate, what is taking place is a different perspective on contemporary transformations, measured against the changes that shaped the area in other times. In a way, the shift in perspective taking place applies not only to the traces of the past. It applies to the marks left by modernity, critically situating it within a global transformation. This is the very essence of the work on *La vie de chaletain à Gruissan* by Christian James Jacquelin and Sylvie Goussopoulos, published in 2015 as Park Notebook No. 16. It reconstructs the origins of this way of life, the evolution of practices, and the conflicts they gave rise to. In this sense, the “heritage” addressed by the park is part of a cumulative and controversial history, straddling the boundaries of institutional objects, sites, monuments, and social practices—an ethnology of space. It is this policy of recognizing (which can be extended to traditional trades, from saltworks to shipbuilding) heritage that does not always present itself as such—what the charter identifies as its apparent “modesty”—that bridges the past and the present (“ ‘History opens the doors to the future,’ proclaims the new Polo del 900 in Turin, which brings together in a single location all heritage associations linked to the city’s history, from its thinkers and objects to its working-class and political memory), but also the social bond between new residents and natives, between distinct generations, and between different ways of inhabiting the territory.

“What justifies a regional nature park—an idea I think is great—is culture. Culture is about taking a look at where we live…” (Interview with Jacques Michaud, February 17, 2022).

The second point is that, alongside and in conjunction with its heritage initiatives, the Regional Nature Park is committed to the performing arts. Naturally, the way heritage is viewed can be likened to a living artistic endeavor, particularly in that it calls for a contemporary perspective and reinterpretation. But the park’s cultural initiatives also involve artistic creation—more detached from a strictly heritage-based approach than one might assume upon reading the charter, though always rooted in a territorial dimension. Many initiatives, particularly artist residencies, aim to place contemporary art within the triptych referenced in Marion Thiba’s quote: territory, reality, imagination, and dream. In the period preceding the one covered by our evaluation, the PNR thus organized a festival,Les Identi’terres. An examination of the program shows that while the “territorial” question is at the heart of the artistic endeavor, it is in no way subject to a heritage dimension. The same applies to the artist residencies, the commissions carried out by the ANPU (National Agency for Urban Psychoanalysis) and its artistic representation of rising sea levels and ponds, on the occasion of theLa Mer Monte scientific conference on November 19, 2021; or the show Allez Allez Allez directed by Fabien Bergès on the passion for rugby. The same applies to the photographic work, Les Traversées, created by Kristof Guez, Marc Medevielle, and Juergen Schilling, exhibited at the Maison des Arts in Bages, which aims precisely to shift our perspective on what, in this space, is not typically considered a “landscape” or “heritage” in common perceptions (scrubland, a railroad track, industrial infrastructure).

In the park’s cultural initiatives, heritage and the performing arts thus converge around the concept of the local area. The question is whether these initiatives have the necessary conditions to live up to the commitments made in 2011.

Method

The research team adopted a three-pronged approach. The first involves reviewing the general literature on PNRs and the various cultural initiatives they document. Among the many sources—in addition to our own studies on the subject in the Rhône-Alpes region—is the recent dissertation by François Pouthier, with whom we conducted an in-depth interview.

Next, as is customary, she devoted herself to reviewing the numerous statistical reports detailing the PNR’s achievements in this area. Throughout the document, we report on this quantitative aspect of the assessment of the PNR’s cultural activities, without, however, treating the figures as an end in themselves.

The qualitative approach, meanwhile, involved a series of interviews that we sought to make as extensive and diverse as possible, in order to gather a wide range of perspectives on the content of this initiative, as well as the context in which it takes place and finds its meaning. The list of interviews is included in the appendix to this document. It comprises some sixty interviewees, whom we thank for their time and for the clarity of their insights into the issues raised by the PNR’s cultural initiative. The interview technique used was semi-structured with a non-directive approach, which—based on a set of questions identified as requiring answers—allowed the interviewee the greatest freedom to address the topics and present their arguments as they saw fit. The interviews varied in length, ranging from 60 to 360 minutes. Several individuals were interviewed on multiple occasions. We therefore have verbatim transcripts corresponding to approximately 1,000 hours of interviews. In addition to these meetings, we naturally gathered field observations during visits to villages, cultural venues, and sites.