Once class identity comes to be seen as a cultural attribute, then those regarded as culturally different have come to be viewed as threats.
Their goals were less arrogant: to increase cultural access for Montrealers, and to include culture as part of the solution to any civic problems.
"The cultural groups thought it was a distraction and that what the culture sector needed was more money," he said.
Japan's claim to commercial whaling as a cultural expression is surely a shaky one, since it only began large-scale whaling in the 20th century – but it was taught to them by European whalers.
With events taking place at venues ranging from tiny, niche museums in Orkney and Norfolk to national giants such at the Natural History Museum and the V&A, the founding ethos of the festival is to celebrate the diverse and often quirky cultural landscape of Britain and to give a voice and platform to smaller institutions.
As part of the UK's largest after-hours cultural festival, more than 500 museums, galleries and heritage sites across the country are turning nocturnal this weekend, inviting the public to experience their collections and history after dark.
He noted "that once hollowed-out city centres are thriving again, with growing universities, iconic museums and cultural events, and with huge improvements to the quality of life".
Smith's work explores the difficulties faced by the remote community and also looks at the cultural fabric that remains in the face of those challenges.
Yet, far from expressing wonder that an act as extreme and barbaric as the murders is what it takes for the west to show defiance towards a religious duty that is not meaningful to non-Muslims, cultural provocateurs successfully argue that this highly exceptional situation is in fact indicative of a general contempt for Islam.
McDonald's reinvention of the Hamburglar was seemingly meant as a play for refreshed cultural relevance, but deeply mixed reactions to the new beef thief raise the prospect that the corporation has miscalculated.
"We deplore the categorical refusal by the British of Unesco's invitation to launch a mediation process over the Parthenon sculptures housed in the British Museum," the cultural minister had said.
