Chapter “Digital cultural policy in Croatia”

The chapter analyses the trajectory of implementation of policies of/for digitisation and digitalisation of culture in Croatia. It critically reviews the available data concerning initiatives and policies concerning the cultural heritage sector, and media and the audio-visual sector. The chapter shows the importance of contextual factors when trying to decipher the characteristics and problems of digital cultural policy in Croatia. It provides an analytic overview of the existing national strategic documents that are relevant for digital cultural policy-making; considers the impact that the EU legislative framework and the EU funds had on conceptualising digital cultural policies; addresses the implementation issues of digital culture in practice as well as recent changes and relevant challenges. Tapping into the opportunities offered by the digital context still largely depends on the instruments that shape ways of business models and working in culture. However, these aspects are still lacking in the Croatian policy documents that focus on digital culture. Thus, the chapter enquires whether the presented policy instruments regarding digital culture in Croatia could be regarded as “critical digital cultural politics”, that is, as policies that work for the public good, diversity, freedom of information, cultural rights, rights as data subjects, etc.