The appropriating subject: Cultural appreciation, property and entitlement

Cattien, Jana; Stopford, Richard John

doi:10.1177/01914537211059515

The appropriating subject: Cultural appreciation, property and entitlement

Cattien, Jana; Stopford, Richard John

Authors

Jana Cattien

Dr Richard Stopford r.j.stopford@durham.ac.uk
Assistant Professor

Abstract

What is cultural ‘appropriation’? What is cultural ‘appreciation’? Whatever the complex answer to this question, cultural appropriation is commonly defined as ‘the taking of something produced by members of one culture by members of another’ (Young 2005: 136), whilst appreciation is typically understood as mere ‘exploration’: ‘Appreciation explores whatever is there’. (Gracyk 2007: 112). These provisional definitions suggest that there is an in-principle distinction between the two concepts that presupposes the following: what is appreciated is already available; what is appropriated was, prior to its being taken, not already there or available. Moreover, perhaps appreciation, when contrasted to appropriation, is unproblematic precisely due to this basic difference. In this paper, we argue that the exclusive disjunction – appropriation or appreciation – rests on a false distinction between the two. We also show that this distinction presupposes a false normative principle that to the extent that x is appreciation rather than appropriation, then x is not – relevant to this issue – a wrong. Against these presuppositions, we defend the view that appropriation is already built into appreciation. This does not mean that we cannot ask questions of appreciation, but that questions of appreciation do not preclude the problematics of appropriation.

Citation

Cattien, J., & Stopford, R. J. (2023). The appropriating subject: Cultural appreciation, property and entitlement. Philosophy and Social Criticism, 49(9), 1061–1078. https://doi.org/10.1177/01914537211059515

Journal Article Type	Article
Online Publication Date	Mar 2, 2022
Publication Date	2023-11
Deposit Date	May 30, 2022
Publicly Available Date	May 30, 2022
Journal	Philosophy & Social Criticism
Print ISSN	0191-4537
Electronic ISSN	1461-734X
Publisher	SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	49
Issue	9
Pages	1061–1078
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1177/01914537211059515
Public URL	https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1205274

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