User:Dpaulschafer

DAVID PAUL SCHAFER (born 26, January, 1937) is an author, advisor, administrator and educator. He is best known for his work on culture, cultures, and Canadian culture, as well as the crucial role they are capable of playing in the world of the future.

Biography

Born in Toronto, Paul was originally trained as an economist at the University of Toronto and taught economics for several years at Dalhousie University and Acadia University before joining the Ontario Arts Council in 1966 and being appointed Assistant Director of the Council in 1967.

In 1970, he left the Ontario Arts Council to become a founder and director of what many believe is the first academic program for training arts administrators and policy-makers in the world. The program - the Graduate Program in Arts Administration - was created at York University in 1969. It was originally located in the Faculty of Administrative Studies and is now in the Schulich School of Business.

Paul left York University in 1974 to conduct a number of advisory missions for UNESCO to different parts of the world, as well as to write the first comprehensive publications on Canadian cultural policy and Canada’s international cultural relations (Aspects of Canadian Cultural Policy for UNESCO in 1976) and Canada’s International Cultural Relations (Department of External Affairs, Government of Canada in 1979). He returned to academic life in 1982 as an Associate Professor at Scarborough Campus of the University of Toronto, as well as Coordinator of two new cooperative programs there, one in International Development and one in Arts Administration.

In 1989, Paul left the University of Toronto to create the World Culture Project, which he directs today. The Project, which was officially designated by UNESCO as a World Decade for Cultural Development activity, is designed to broaden and deepen understanding of culture and cultures in general and Canadian culture in particular. It is devoted to making the case that culture and cultures have a central rather than marginal role to play in the world, and are the key to environmental sustainability and human welfare and well-being in the future.

The findings of the Project are set out in three major publications: Culture - Beacon of the Future (Praeger/Greenwood Publishers in its 21st. Century Studies series in 1999 and in Chinese by the Social Sciences Academic Press in Beijing in 2008); Revolution or Renaissance: Making the Transition from an Economic Age to a Cultural Age (Social Sciences Academic Press in Chinese in 2006 and the University of Ottawa Press in 2008); and Culture and Politics in Canada: Towards a Culture for All Canadians (World Culture Project, 1999). More information on these and other publications is available in the Publications section of the World Culture Project website at: www3.sympatico.ca/dpaulschafer.

Paul is well-known in cultural circles throughout the world for his many books and articles on the arts, culture, and Canadian culture, as well as his involvement over many years in organizations like UNESCO and CULTURELINK.