Abstract
This paper is devoted to establishing why reliable internationally comparable statistics on cultural participation are needed. It addresses the major and various difficulties that arise in comparing national surveys, both over time and to each other. It considers the problems that persist even with cross-national surveys for comparative purposes. Section 5 will conclude the paper with some policy recommendations.
This is a reprint of O’Hagan, J. (2016). European Statistics on Cultural Participation and Their International Comparability. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 22 (2), pp. 291–303.
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Notes
- 1.
The Commission, in response to a request from member states, set up the Leadership Group on Culture Statistics (LEG) in 1997. ‘One of the project’s primary objectives was to harmonize statistics on cultural employment, financing and practices, these being central elements in the framing and monitoring of cultural policies’ (European Commission 2001, p. 5). The conclusions and recommendations were adopted by the Statistical Programme Committee of the Commission, in 1999. See Allin (2000) for a discussion on the work of the Group.
- 2.
The Eurobarometer Survey Series was launched by the European Commission in 1974 and provides a regular monitoring of the social and political attitudes of the public. Today these public opinion surveys are conducted on behalf of and coordinated by DG Press and Communication (Opinion Polls Sector) and special topics are carried out at the request of the responsible EC Directorate General. Four of these surveys were devoted to cultural participation.
- 3.
The European Social Survey since 2001 monitors attitude change in over 30 countries. It was initiated by the European Science Foundation and the European Commission and it now has around 35 separate funders ‘dedicated to discovering more about changes in Europe’s social, political and cultural fabric’. The Commission funds the project’s overall design, coordination and control. The intent is to improve methods of quantitative social measurement in Europe and beyond, providing a means by which societies may judge themselves, at least partly. It is one of the first collaborative research projects to become a European Commission ‘Infrastructure’. Questionnaires at each round of the survey, which takes place every 2 years, cover a range of topics that tap into key issues facing contemporary Europe. The questionnaires combine continuity with change through a consistent core module and a series of rotating modules, selected via a Europe-wide competition.
- 4.
The Council of Europe and the European Institute for Comparative Cultural Research (ERICarts) provide web-based and permanently updated information and a monitoring system of national cultural policies in Europe. It is a long-term project, which aims to include 48 member states co-operating within the context of the European Cultural Convention.
- 5.
The Wallace Foundation commissioned the Curb Center, Vanderbilt University (USA), to undertake a project on comparing participation in the arts and culture covering 35 countries and one Canadian province. The outcome of this research was Schuster (2007). The study, following on other similar studies (see for example, Jowell 1998; Lievesley 2001; Skaliotis 2003; King et al. 2004; Madden 2004, 2005; Morrone 2006; UNESCO 2012) is salutary in demonstrating the problems with such comparisons. For some countries of course no data at all may exist.
- 6.
See Keaney (2008) for a good discussion of this issue and how often qualitative data are required to throw real light on barriers to non-participation, perceived and real. The recent Eurobarometer survey (European Commission 2013) did though include specific quantitative questions about reasons for non-attendance.
- 7.
In the English Taking Part survey, the question reads: “In the last 12 months, have you been to any of these events?” The answers are: film at a cinema or other venue; exhibition or collection of art, photography or sculpture; craft exhibition (not crafts market); event which included video or electronic art; event connected with books or writing; street arts (art in everyday surroundings like parks, streets or shopping centres) or circus (not animals); carnival, culturally specific festival (for example, Mela, Baisakhi, Navrati), play; drama, other theatre performance (for example, musical, pantomime), opera; operetta, classical music performance, jazz performance, other live music event, ballet, contemporary dance, African people’s dance or South Asian and Chinese dance, other live dance event.
- 8.
For example, the “historical monuments, museums, art galleries or archaeological sites” category in the English survey reads in the Spanish questionnaire as “lugares de interés cultural” (cultural interest places). What does “cultural interest places” mean to an English speaker or indeed to a Spanish speaker?
- 9.
The first questions in the Spanish survey regarding “cultural participation” are: Please, could you classify your interest for each of the following activities? (where: 0 = no interest and 10 = maximum interest): …, Cinema, Theatre, Opera, Spanish Operetta, Ballet, Music. When did you go to the … (Ballet, Opera, Spanish Operetta, Theatre) last? Within last 3 months; Last year; More than 1 year ago; Never or almost never. Then only if people went within last 3 months. How many times did you go to … (Ballet, Opera, Spanish Operetta, Theatre) within the last 3 months? Finally, only if you went to the theatre last year: in relation to the last time that you went to the theatre: On which day of the week was it? What kind of admission did you use?
- 10.
The International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) is a continuous programme of cross-national collaboration running annual surveys on topics important for the social sciences. The programme started in 1984 with four founding members—Australia, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States—and has grown to 48 member countries from all over the world in 2013. The ISSP is noteworthy in a number of ways: First, the cross-national collaboration is not ad hoc or intermittent, but continuous. Second, the programme is based on voluntary co-operation. Major decisions on modules or questionnaires, on membership or membership obligations are taken by the ISSP in common, by votes in the ISSP’s general assembly. Third, each ISSP member funds its own survey, there are no central funds. Implementation and archiving of modules are carried out in accordance with the ISSP Working Principles and the requirements for data and background variables.
- 11.
Eurostat data are used by researchers for comparative work (see for example Brook 2011), noting caveats but still proceeding to draw perhaps unjustifiably firm conclusions from them.
- 12.
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in Washington DC has commissioned surveys on participation in the Arts in the United States for more than 30 years. They have also commissioned many studies to examine the determinants of variation in participation/participation rates in various art forms.
- 13.
UNESCO has made valiant attempts to provide guidelines for the comparable measurement of cultural participation but even more difficult problems are faced by researchers there, given the vast array of countries which are members of UNESCO. Nonetheless, Morrone (2006) and UNESCO (2012) provide useful general frameworks for the measurement of cultural participation, not least an survey on international case studies of surveys of cultural participation.
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Acknowledgements
I wish to thank Concetta Castiglione and Victoria Ateca-Amestoy for assistance with translation of parts of the Italian and Spanish surveys alluded to in the paper. I also wish to record that the work for this paper greatly benefitted from participation in a project on Assessing Effective Tools to Enhance Cultural Participation (PUCK) funded by the Education and Culture DG of the European Commission under its Culture Programme. The current version of the paper benefitted greatly from the comments of two anonymous referees for the journal from which this article is reproduced.
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O’Hagan, J. (2017). European Statistics on Participation in the Arts and Their International Comparability. In: Ateca-Amestoy, V., Ginsburgh, V., Mazza, I., O'Hagan, J., Prieto-Rodriguez, J. (eds) Enhancing Participation in the Arts in the EU. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09096-2_1
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