New Public Management in the Cultural Field: Professionalization, Commodification, and Expertization of Contemporary French Poetry

This article focuses on the penetration of the New Public Management (NPM) concept in the field of contemporary French poetry, exploring how professionalization, commodification, and expertization have reshaped the poetry ecosystem, and how poets balance between the state funding system and market demands. As a governance concept originating from the UK and the US that emphasizes marketization and performance evaluation, NPM is profoundly changing the logic of cultural production. Poetry, a traditional art form, also faces tensions between management and creation, commerce and purity.

NPM originated from public sector reforms in the UK and the US in the 1980s, with core features including market orientation, performance evaluation, and decentralization of authority. Since the 1990s, it has penetrated into the cultural field, manifesting as marketization of cultural policies (project-based bidding), corporatization of institutions, and professionalization of artists. French poetry has a long tradition and state support, but its ecosystem is fragile: small readership market, publication relying on subsidies, unstable income for poets, and main funding channels including the National Book Center (CNL), local institutions, and private foundations.

NPM promotes professionalization in the poetry field: the professionalization of the poet identity (creative writing courses and residency programs become growth paths, some positions require qualification certification), and professional organizations (poets' associations) play a community role. Changes brought about include standardization of skills, clarification of career paths, and hierarchization of quality evaluation systems. However, there are also paradoxes: tensions between creative innovation and training norms, higher entry barriers excluding creators from non-traditional backgrounds, and standardized training possibly leading to stylistic convergence.

Under NPM, poetry is endowed with commodity attributes: poetry books and activities become objects of market exchange, audiences are regarded as consumers, and poets need to build personal brands. Manifestations include project-based funding (filling out budget forms, setting quantified goals), performance indicators (number of audiences, media exposure, etc.), market positioning, and cross-border cooperation. However, tensions are obvious: conflicts between the non-utilitarian nature of poetry and market efficiency requirements, contradictions between niche elitism and the mass market, and restrictions on creative freedom due to reliance on funding.

In the NPM era, cultural experts have risen: cultural managers, intermediaries (curators, agents), and academic experts dominate evaluation and decision-making. Mechanisms include professional evaluation procedures (complex review standards), specialized discourse systems, and technicalized decision-making (relying on data indicators). The consequences are a relative decline in poets' discourse rights, strengthened procedural justice but higher participation thresholds, and the formation of a new power hierarchy among experts, managers, and artists.

Facing NPM pressure, French poets adopt various strategies: active adaptation (learning project management to become "cultural entrepreneurs"), selective participation (strategically applying for funding while maintaining independence), building alternative spaces (independent publishing houses, self-publishing platforms), and critical reflection (reflecting on impacts through creative reviews). Poets have diverse identities: multiple roles (teachers, editors, etc.), project-based survival, and networked existence (social media promotion). The poetry community is also being reconstructed: professional networks, intergenerational inheritance, and international connections.

NPM has a profound and complex impact on French poetry: it brings both resources and professionalization opportunities, as well as risks of commodification and alienation. The future faces challenges of the digital age (self-publishing competition, attention economy, AI creation), but there are also post-NPM possibilities (new public governance, cultural democratization, sustainable development). The unique value of poetry (upholding humanity, resisting fast culture, exploring meaning) is more important in the technological era, and safeguarding the essence of poetry is a universal issue concerning the future of human spirit.