One of the important things that many scholars have agreed upon over these years since the formalization of talking about cultural policy is that one of the ways of steering cultural policies is through pragmatism. Pragmatism is defined by three things. It sees phenomena as ultimately un-representable, because our own cognitive capacities allow only certain aspects to be seen. It refers instead to representational effects where every articulation is not representation proper. Second, it is anti-foundational in that there are no eternal givens of knowledge since knowledge is always provisional. And finally pragmatism is anti-realist, in the sense that pragmatism does not claim, even denies, a full knowledge of reality.

Essentially it is an area of philosophy but it is also a part of Cultural Studies since it ties in largely with various formulations of Cultural Studies, for instance, of representations being problematic, foundations being provisional and discursive. These aspects are to be appropriated for social reform, the most important aspect of cultural policy.