Culture is often described as decoration: something pleasant, enriching, but ultimately secondary to the real workings of society. These articles make a persuasive case for the opposite. They reveal culture as one of the most decisive arenas in which power, identity and belonging are negotiated.

From Cold War musical diplomacy to queer reinterpretations of folk heritage, from debates about gendered authorship to the securitisation of cultural policy, and even in the uneasy coexistence of public protest and artistic performance, one question recurs: who gets to be heard? Culture can build bridges across borders, but it can just as easily expose the lines we draw between “us” and “them.” It can reproduce old norms, or it can rewrite them with new, more inclusive endings.

In a time when societies are increasingly defined by anxiety, control and division, these stories remind us that culture is not a luxury. It is a public space where we imagine the kind of community we want to live in. Ignoring its political weight does not make it neutral, it only leaves it vulnerable.

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Photo: Julius Töyrylä