Abstract
The content aligns with allusions to cultural heritage present in 2023 master’s thesis “As tonalidades do soft power brasileiro: entre a visibilidade e a atuação” (Cardoso, 2023) (The shades of Brazilian soft power: between visibility and acting), whose purpose is to present, from the perspective of cultural heritage, “soft power” from reports of four representative newspapers of national electronic media, Folha de S. Paulo, O Globo, O Estado de S. Paulo and Jornal do Brasil, between 1997 and 2018. In their wide plurality, the nuances of soft power were mapped as a persuasion tool and strategical instrument of Brazilian foreign policy, given the unprecedented character on heritage in the country. Based on this, the article is a result of intersection of History and International Relations fields and flows in the sense of describing how the theme is inserted in current geopolitical scenario; the different conceptions of power, in which cultural heritage as soft power is one of such variation; the vulnerability of cultural goods and conduct of protection, preservation and safeguard measures; the inestimable value and significance of collective identity of several social groups; cultural heritage and its position as a primary source of soft power for whole humanity, as well as for strength, geopolitical strategies and prominence in the international system of states. That said, the present work intends to offer a theoretical-methodological study of soft power in order to provide a bond between theory and practice to demonstrate a brief explanation on how works the soft power application in Brazilian foreign policy.
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Notes
- 1.
The category “collective memory” was developed by the French sociologist Maurice Halbwachs (1877–1945) in “A memória coletiva” (1990, p. 81/82) and implies that memory of experiences must be considered in a group perspective, leading to into account the social contexts in which they operate.
- 2.
Although we do not agree with the material and immaterial distinction of heritage since they coexist, the immaterial category achieved notoriety from the Federal Constitution of 1988, in its articles 215 and 216 and includes practices, ways of doing, domains of social life, knowledge, celebrations and festivities, performing, plastic, recreational or musical arts, as well as places where cultural practices are manifested.
- 3.
“Manifest Destiny” is the name of a document that was presented by the United States as an attempt to justify, as if it were a divine choice, its prominence on the international level, being privileged for being surrounded by two oceans (Atlantic and Pacific), as well as having two neighbours considered weak militarily (Mexico and Canada) (Pecequilo 2003).
- 4.
Regarding the last update of the data being four years ago, we tried to contact Portland team via email, however we did not receive any answer until now. In the message, I requested updates and tried to reinforce that pandemic context would bring significant changes to the topics investigated, guided by the notion that the countries ranking would present considerable changes amidst public health, economic crises and political scandals.
- 5.
Bilateral treaties correspond to official international agreements usually of economic or political nature involving the exchange between two countries, while multilateral treaties refer to agreements between two or more countries. They gather to form alliances and align guidelines in various fields such as trade in goods and services, environmental, cultural issues, health-related issues, etc.
- 6.
Briefly, the expression “place of memory” was coined by the French historian Pierre Nora to refer to historical repair of physical places where social memory is anchored. They are functional, symbolic and representative places of desire to produce memory, where collective memory is expressed and revealed.
- 7.
Means of memory are understood to be any signs of culture and tradition of a community passed down from generation to generation so that they are strong, timeless and, above all, present.
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Cardoso, L.E.A. (2023). Cultural Heritage as a Potential Soft Power Instrument. In: Christofoletti, R. (eds) Soft Power and Heritage. The Latin American Studies Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41207-3_10
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