https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9106-463X
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ABSTRACT
In a global world, increasingly mediated by new technologies, but where place, communities and territories assume even more importance, the valuing of culture and creativity faces new conceptual and operational challenges. This paper addresses these challenges in order to question the measurement tools usually applied in valuing the impact of culture in society, proposing a new conceptual grid to assess the impacts of creative and cultural activities, in all their diversity and multidimensionality. This results from an intense co-construction process, over the few past years, involving a variety of cultural agents, both in Portuguese and European contexts, in the scope of several research projects. This analytical framework helps disentangling the increasing complexity of the mechanisms underlying value creation in cultural activities, enabling self-assessment of its diverse impacts, in a particular territory or community. A specific grid is presented, comprising five main dimensions (cultural, economic, social, environmental; citizenship and participation), for assessing the territorial impacts of cultural activities. These are subdivided into 15 subdimensions and operationalized in 75 different indicators. This analytical framework is being transposed to a digital application that allows the systematization, self-assessment and self-awareness of value creation and their impacts by the agents of the cultural/creative sector.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 RESHAPE Webpage https://reshape.network/trajectory/value-of-art-in-social-fabric.
2 And these are often the ones already expected in an unquestionable or uncritical way by the institutions on which projects or promoters depend, financially or institutionally, for the development of these activities.
3 Previous versions of our analytical framework, directed for the specific case of creative tourism initiatives, can be consulted in these references.
4 Cf. Verwayen et al. (Citation2017); https://pro.europeana.eu/page/impact#impact-playbook.
7 We naturally acknowledge the important contributions of all colleagues involved—in a ‘variable geometry’—in all these projects, particularly Elisabete Tomaz, Margarida Perestrelo, Maria Assunção Gato, Ana Rita Cruz and Ricardo Lopes, as well as the partners and community members involved in all of them. We also appreciate the discussions held with the eight Reshapers engaged on trajectory three of RESHAPE (‘Value of art in social fabric’): Bojan Krištofić, Caroline Melon, Jean-Lorin Sterian, Margarita Pita, Marina Urruticoechea, Minipogon, Tewa Barnosa and Zoe Lafferty.
8 And more recently, also a 5th project— ‘STRONGER PERIPHERIES—a Southern Coalition’ (funded by Creative Europe program)—in the testing and application of the framework presented in this paper.
9 CREATOUR—Creative Tourism Destination Development in Small Cities and Rural Areas (SAICTPAC/0003/2015) (project No. 16437), funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT/MEC) through national funds and co-funded by FEDER through the Joint Activities Programme of COMPETE 2020 and the Regional Operational Programmes of Lisbon and Algarve.
10 RESHAPE—Reflect, Share, Practice Experiment, funded by EC, Creative Europe Program.
11 IMPACTOS-AR—Study on the impacts of the activities of ARTEMREDE, funded by ARTEMREDE municipalities network.
12 ARTSBANK—Creative milieus at "Margem Sul": triggering territorial development through co-creation of knowledge in the contemporary metropolis (several sources of funding).
13 As it is being applied in practice. Please note that in parallel to this scale questions, we envisage to apply, in certain research cases, additional quantitative and qualitative questions for each sub-dimension.