Evaluating qualities of cultural production: a value-based approach

ABSTRACT

The work of artists, creatives and the cultural community that provides arts, culture and artistic education to society deserves due credit. It is not always easy to find the appropriate mechanisms to appraise and communicate in what ways this work impacts and benefits different target groups, different communities and society as whole. There is an urgent need for reliable evaluation of qualitative achievements of cultural and creative endeavours. We argue that, after years of focusing on the quantities of (economic) life, the time has arrived for considering the qualities of life. The new creative economy, based on sustainable development, calls for a different way of thinking: the Value-Based Approach (VBA). This paper will address the theoretical and methodological aspects of the VBA and suggests why it is a useful method for evaluating (social and cultural) impact of cultural production. This paper will draw on some empirical examples of the application of the VBA to the cultural sector.

KEYWORDS:

• Value
• impact
• change
• cultural production
• artists

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 These logics are discussed later in the paper.

2 Wikipedia is free encyclopaedia, launched by non-profit organisation Wikipedia Foundation. www.wikipedia.org

3 Quality of life is the general well-being of individuals and societies, outlining negative and positive features of life. It observes life satisfaction, including everything from physical health, family, education, employment, wealth, religious beliefs, finance and the environment (Barcaccia 2013).

4 The ‘Better life index’ aims to be an international measure of well-being across nations and cultures by directly involving the citizens to contribute to the construction of the index. Citizens can define important aspects of their community life by individually reporting to both elements of the index: ‘Your better life index’ and ‘How’s life’.

5 For more details on the institutional logics within the cultural sector, see Klamer and Zuidhof (1998).

6 An impression of some of the performances can be found here: http://rotterdamunlimited.com/nl/programma/archief/2016

7 The listed values under each cluster: personal, social, societal and transcendental are only used as illustrative examples.

Additional information

Funding

The empirical research on the case study of Creative Community programme of Arts Council Mala was commissioned by Arts Council Malta.

Notes on contributors

Lyudmila Petrova

Lyudmila Petrova is Researcher and Educator of cultural economics with a PhD from Erasmus University. For the past 15 years, she has taught and researched in an international environment on cultural and creative industries, cultural innovation and valorization, financing of the arts, creativity and motivation, cultural entrepreneurship, and international cultural policy. She is Co-founder of the Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Economics (CREARE Social) where she has worked on the Summer School of Cultural Economics and leads the implementation of the value-based approach to the evaluation of cultural and social programmes and organisations across Europe. Over the years, she has published numerous texts based on her research topics in various books and international journals and regularly presents at international seminars and conferences.

Susana Graça

Susana Graça is an economist with a PhD in Philosophy and Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam. Her research focuses on cultural economics and the methodology of economics. She is currently a project manager of the European Media and Information Fund at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. She is an adjunct professor of cultural economics at the Theatre and Cinema School of the Polytechnic Institute of Lisbon, where she lectures at Masters and PhD levels. For the past 20 years, she has worked extensively in the cultural field with managerial roles in executive bodies of the Portuguese Ministry of Culture. She works as an independent expert for support programmes of the European Commission and she is a consultant in programme and project management for cultural and research organizations.

Arjo Klamer

Arjo Klamer is Professor in Cultural Economics emeritus at the Erasmus University, Rotterdam. He is actively involved in the value-based approach to economics and currently works on the development of a programme in the humane economy at the Free University. He authored Doing the Right Thing (2017) and currently works on a book entitled A Sense of Purpose. He is Co-founder of CREARE and Stichting Economie en Culture. His current research focuses on the cultural dimension of economic life and the values of arts and culture. He has initiated and currently leads the academic team working on the Value-Based Approach. He presents and gives workshops all over the world and is politically active in his home country, the Netherlands.