Culturelink World Network

CULTURELINK – the World Network for Research in Cultural Development and Cooperation (culturelink.org), established in 1989 in Paris at the International Symposium on Networks for Cultural Development and Cooperation. The network founders – UNESCO and the Council of Europe – proposed the Institute for International Relations in Zagreb (IRMO) as its headquarters, and IRMO assumed the continuous coordination of this international project. In its three decades of existence, the network’s activities have included fostering communication among members, collecting, processing, and disseminating information on cultural policies and cultural development worldwide, international research in culture, establishing and developing a web resource center on cultural development and cooperation, organizing international conferences, and regular publishing activities. From its inception to the end of its operation, the network has brought together more than 2000 members of various profiles from all continents engaged in cultural development, cultural policies, and international cultural cooperation. Culturelink has been a precursor to networked organizations in culture and a leader in research on global cultural policies, cultural development, cultural identities, cultural diversity, digital culture, international cultural relations, and intercultural communication. Within its thirty-year existence, a series of internationally recognized scientific publications have been published as part of CULTURELINK’s activities, numerous international scientific and professional conferences and meetings have been organized, and a series of seminars have been conducted to educate experts in the field of cultural policies, development, and cooperation. Research conducted in collaboration with network members has focused on cultural policies and cultural development, as well as topics such as cultural diversity, redefinition of cultural identities, cultural industries, cultural communication and networking, digital culture, as well as topics in the field of media and cultural tourism. The research results were disseminated through Culturelink publications (Culturelink Joint Publication Series and thematic issues of the Culturelink journal), which were available in open access through the Culturelink web resource center.

Culturelink has received numerous international recognitions throughout its operation, and its activities have had a wide resonance in international journals and especially among members of the Culturelink world network, as evidenced by the rich documentation at the Institute for International Relations. An exceptionally relevant network information resource for researching cultural development, cultural changes, and cooperation has been established, for which the Culturelink network has received several international awards and recognitions. The WWW Resource Center project of the Culturelink Network, reviewed by an expert editorial board, has been included in The Web’s Best Sites directory of Britannica.com, a corporate unit of Encyclopædia Britannica specializing in digital technologies and the Internet, and has been awarded the Anthro.Net’s Best Practices Award for the field of social sciences, which, after a professional review by a selected jury of scientists, is awarded to less than 1% of all proposed WWW sites. It was also selected as the Croatian representative in the e-culture category of the World Summit Award; and was declared one of the finalists in the culture category of the world competition for innovative information technology projects, the Stockholm Challenge Award.

Culturelink World Network Archive