Stability and change in patterns of cultural participation in the events of the European Capital of Culture Wrocław 2016

ABSTRACT

This study analyses the extent to which the exposure to cultural events of the European Capital of Culture Wrocław 2016 resulted in more inclusive participation in culture. Drawing from the data from a representative survey of city and region inhabitants (N = 1000) , we examine the impact of the pre-existing habits of cultural participation on engagement in events offered during ECOC 2016. Relationships between the cultural habits of participants, their socio-demographic characteristics, and attendance at ECOC events divided into four categories (mass, ludic, artistic, niche) are analysed. The study indicates the role of the cultural habits preceding participation in ECOC as a determinant of involvement in cultural events. We found that people oriented towards cultural participation were more likely to attend diverse ECOC events. For people culturally oriented to leisure at home, a massive and diverse cultural offer was not enough to expand their interest beyond mass and ludic events. We conclude that – contrary to ECOC values emphasising egalitarianism and open access to culture and contrary to cultural policy goals aimed at broadening cultural participation – ECOC 2016 was a selective event, which can be considered more broadly as a foreseeable failure in achieving the cultural policy aims underlying ECOCs.

KEYWORDS:

• European Capital of Culture 2016
• cultural participation
• cultural attendance
• evaluation

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in University of Wrocław repository at https://doi.org/10.34616/135539

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The author(s) were professionally involved as an independent researcher in the process of evaluation of the social impacts of ECOC Wrocław 2016 funded by the City Council of Wrocław (Agreement no. 34/F/16).

Notes on contributors

Katarzyna Kajdanek

Katarzyna Kajdanek (Dr hab. Assoc. Prof.) is an urban sociologist. Her main research areas are urbanisation processes with particular emphasis on the socio-spatial aspects of suburbanisation and reurbanisation in post-socialist cities, urban culture, local and regional identity, as well as applied social sciences.

Mateusz Błaszczyk

Mateusz Błaszczyk (Dr hab. Assoc. Prof.) is the Head of the Urban and Rural Sociology Department. His key areas of research interest are urban political economy, urban culture, and local and regional development in Central and Eastern Europe countries; ORCID: 0000-0002-5778-2723

Ewa Banaszak

Ewa Banaszak (Dr hab.) is a qualitative researcher equally interested in the body and corporeality as well as the daily dress (Wrocław Fashion Project), participation in culture (evaluation of the European Capital of Culture Wrocław 2016), and socio-emotional learning (international project ‘Building social and emotional skills to BOOST mental health resilience in children and young people in Europe’). Editor-in-chief of the scientific journal Fabrica Societatis

Jacek Pluta

Jacek Pluta (Dr) is a lecturer at the Institute of Sociology, University of Wrocław. His main areas of research are the sociology of knowledge, sociology of culture, urban sociology, social agency and structure, methodology and methods in social science, perception of various aspects of the quality of life, regional policy. Since February 2019, he has been employed as a deputy director of the Department of Social Affairs of the Wrocław Municipal Office. He specialises in urban policy programming. Co-author of strategies and programmes concerning the social policy of the city, cultural development, city strategy; ORCID: 0000-0003-2173-7469