28 July 1998. The relations between economic and cultural integration and its scope in the formulation or reformulation of basic concepts like "identity" will be the subject of an in-depth analysis in a seminar on this issue organized by the Latin American Economic System (SELA), to be held on 30 and 31 July in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Globalization, something without precedent in the history of humanity, to date has been considered a process of a strictly economic nature, ignoring the cultural and social dimensions implicit in it.

In the seminar "Economic Integration and Cultural Industries in Latin America and the Caribbean", a group of well known specialists will prepare a diagnosis not only of the relations between economic and cultural integration but also of the challenges they represent for two interrelated spheres: identity and the internationalization of cultural production.

The influence of economic globalization on the cultural level has given rise to a change of the traditional and modern cultural identity, of a territorial nature, to another modern and postmodern one, of a transterritorial nature.

"It is not a question of a loss of national identity but of its transformation, frequently turbulent, because of the effect of the globalization processes," in the opinion of the Permanent Secretary of SELA, Ambassador Carlos Moneta, who will also participate in the seminar.

Recent studies of cultural consumption show that young people depend more on the mass communication media and the new communication systems like Internet to model their behaviour, than on the local circuits which promote the countries’ historical heritage and popular traditional culture.

According to Moneta, "The important thing now is that national cultural policies take into account the new situation and manage to surpass tradition." Otherwise the processes of regional economic integration and hemispheric free trade "may end up giving preference to extending the space of the transnational cultural industries".

Nestor Garcia Canclini, Sealtiel Alatriste and Raul Trejo (Mexico), German Rey (Colombia), Luis Poulhes (France), Lluis Binet (Spain), Gabriel mar Alvares (Brazil), Hugo Achugar (Uruguay), Rafael Roncaglioli (Peru), George Yudice (United states) and Daniel Mato (Venezuela) will participate in the seminar.

Among other issues, the participants will discuss cultural policies, national identities, regional integration and the use of new technologies in the communication as well as the production and marketing of soap operas in Latin America.

The seminar is also sponsored by UNESCO, the Andres Bello Agreement, the Municipality of the City of Buenos Aires and the National Art Fund of Argentina.

http://www.sela.org
sela@sela.org
   SELA,  Permanent Secretariat
Torre Europa, Fourth floor, Urb. Campo Alegre, Av Francisco de Miranda,
Caracas 1060- Venezuela
Tlf: (58) (212) 955.71.11 Fax: (58) (212) 951.52.92