The role of critical consciousness in supporting state cultural policy modernization projects of state cultural policy: an empirical analysis

The article analyzes the relationship between citizens’ critical consciousness and support for state cultural policy aimed at the modernization of public consciousness in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The empirical basis is the data from an author-designed survey of the adult population (N = 188). Using regression analysis, the study evaluates the relationships between the cleaned index of critical consciousness (CC_clean), support for modernization projects in the cultural sphere, and the perception of cultural policy as a factor of modernization, while controlling for gender, age, educational level, type of place of residence, and type of employment. To test the robustness of the results and address the comment regarding possible substantive overlap between the predictor and the dependent variables, a cleaned index of critical consciousness was constructed, including only those items not related to the assessment of cultural policy itself. The results show that the relationship between critical consciousness, support for modernization initiatives, and a positive assessment of the modernization role of cultural policy remains significant in both linear and ordinal models and cannot be reduced to differences in socio-demographic composition. The article offers recommendations for improving cultural policy, focusing on the transition from a transmission-based to a dialogic model of engagement with the population, the development of formats for active citizen participation in cultural life, the integration of themes of social inequality and civic responsibility into cultural programs, as well as the institutionalization of measuring critical consciousness within the system for monitoring the effectiveness of cultural policy.

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