In 2015, a collective discussion took place in Belgium, organised by Flanders Arts Institute, IETM and deBuren. Participants were policy makers and researchers. At the panel discussion, Pascal Gielen, Professor in Sociology of Art and Cultural Politics at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, presented the main insights of the research report “The Value of Culture” prepared in collaboration with sociologists, economists, philosophers and psychologists.
You are free to download the report: Culture, the Substructure for a European Common. Either the Dutch original or the English summary.
“In various countries within Europe, there is an on-going discussion about governmental investment in the arts and culture. While traditional arguments are losing potency, and the debate is continually becoming carried out more in economic and statistical terms, the work field as well as the cultural policymakers are feeling an increasing need for a new dialog on the place of the arts and culture within a community.
So, we have had various ongoing discussions about governmental investment in arts and culture, how best to collect economic and statistical information and how to measure genuine connections and success for the last few years. Valuable studies are being made across Europe, and then appear to be laid to rest – we now need to move forward by combining relevant research, experiment and then take to the next level of implementation.
Should you have time to listen to the discussion, here is a link to it on YouTube.
You might also want to read this related article.
Published on earights.org in October 2016