Education and Research Session 2022
Chairs: Annick Schramme, University of Antwerp, Netherlands, and João Leiva, Goldsmiths, University of London
There has been an increase in the last decades in the production of data aimed to inform cultural policymaking in Europe and around the globe. Countries have implemented statistics on employment and on the contribution of culture to the gross domestic product. On the demand-side, surveys on cultural participation were adopted by some nations. Cultural organizations have started to take a closer look at their audiences. And there was an effort of cultural institutions and researchers to measure the social value of culture. But are these data being used by policymakers?
During the COVID-19 pandemic, data were used to demonstrate that the virus outbreak was strongly affecting the sector, threatening the survival of cultural organizations. The resumption of live cultural activities offers a good opportunity to assess the final impact of the pandemic for the sector, but also how, and particularly if, the data produced is contributing to inform the development of cultural policies.
The period of high inflation and limited budgets predicted by economists will challenge the cultural sector beyond the health crisis. The changes brought by the digital technologies will keep on going, diversifying the online consumption of culture. Despite the criticism that the use of quantitative information in the cultural sector still arouses, more data will be needed.
The aim of this track is to discuss the use of data to support evidence-based policies. The contributions to this track could address, not being limited to, the following topics:
- Is the quantitative data produced about the cultural sector in the last decades being used to develop evidence-based policies? If yes, how? If not, why and what could be done to change it?
- Is there an awareness among cultural professionals about the different ways in which quantitative data could be used to support projects and policies? If not, what could be done to change this scenario?
- What are the main findings brought by the quantitative data collected (about employment, gross value, attendance, etc.)?
- How academy is engaging in this context, helping to analyse and criticise the data collected? What are the main contributions to the debate coming from scholars?
- What are the main challenges on data collection in the cultural sector for the next years? What will we need to know and what could we do to have this data?