Symbolic severance: Charlie or the broken circle of cultural mediation

Abstract

The cultural dimension of the attack on Charlie Hebdo raises questions about the meaning of the event in terms of public policies on art and culture. At issue particulary is the re-situation of those policies in their relationship with democratic achievement in the context of the French republican model. Analysis through the prism of cultural mediation, considered as a communication process designed to produce a symbolic type of work, casts new light on the objectives and the ways and means of implementing such policies.