How has culture changed since UNESCO was founded?

We are all familiar with two different meanings of the word "culture".

1. Farouk Hosny, the unsuccessful candidate last year for election to the post of UNESCO Director General, is the long time Minister of Culture. We understand that his portfolio extends to museums, galleries, and theaters, to literature, music, drama and film, and art. His is the realm in which a "man of culture" would be expert. In the case of Egyptian Hosny, an important aspect of his duties is the protection of antiquities and Egypt's heritage of Pharaonic, Greco-Roman and Arabic artifacts and monuments.
2. Anthropologists use the term "culture" in a more inclusive manner such as these definitions from Wikipedia: "An integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for symbolic thought and social learning" and "the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or group".

What may not be so clear is that since UNESCO was founded in 1945, the primary meaning of the term has changed the former to the latter. UNESCO has added elements to its cultural program, from a concern for books and museums, to protection of historical monuments and movable elements of cultural heritage, to a broader concern for recognition of intangible cultural heritage and promotion of dialog among cultures and promotion of a culture of peace.

How has culture itself changed in the 65 years since UNESCO was created?

Globalization certainly has made profound changes. People are more exposed to cultures other than their own. Increased travel and increased migration results in more people experiencing other cultures in person. The growth of the global information infrastructure allows people to experience other cultures more via the media.

The creation of a large number of new nations has reduced or at least changed cultural imperialism in those decolonized states, while commercial distribution of cultural products is greatly increasing the inter-penetration of popular cultures, especially the penetration of the successful marketers of cultural products into other cultures.

Many more people speak the major international languages (although some languages have disappeared and many are endangered.) The advance of technology has allowed not only faster and easier language learning, but access to significant amounts of online automated translation. During last year's UNESCO election, for example, with the help of friends and Google I was able to monitor the press coverage not only in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese, but also in German, Russian, Bulgarian and Arabic. Languages themselves have changed, not only by adopting new words from abroad but inventing new words for new things and new thoughts.

The world stock of literature, art and drama has increased. We have not only printed and filmed materials, but a world of digital material. We have also seen the phenomenon of "the long tail". We have access not only to that which we own, that which we can find live on the media, and that in the stores, but to huge collections available online. This week, for example, I found an online copy of a long out of print book by my great uncle, and more surprisingly, of a hand written poem he has sent to a colleague in the 1920's.

The explosion of schooling has equipped many more people with more and better tools for cultural exploration and appreciation. So too, the growth of the world economy has allowed a huge increase in the affordability of cultural products and travel.

Birth rates have fallen everywhere, people are living longer, and families are smaller. For the first time in history, most people in the world live in cities. The occupational structures of society have changed with a smaller percentage of workers in agriculture and a greater percentage in services.

There have been radical changes in institutions, including political, economic and social institutions. Indeed, even I suspect in religions and their expressions.

And of course, cultures have evolved both according to the external pressures and influences and to the internal actions and preferences of their peoples.

One must ask then if UNESCO has or could have changed its culture program sufficiently to meet the new challenges and opportunities of todays cultures?