Work Package Leader: University of Barcelona
Principal Investigator: Arturo Rodríguez Morató

This WP is devoted to the analysis of the configuration of the values of culture.

It carries out a first analysis about how the values of culture in Europe are constructed aiming with the central goal to examine the influence of a series of circumstances and key factors in shaping these values.

Specific objectives of WP1

• To make an extensive review of the research literature and existing data on the configuration of the values of culture;
• To assess the influence of several key factors and circumstances in the configuration of the social values of culture: gender and rising diversity; urbanisation and social and spatial segregation in cities; globalisation and digitisation; neo-liberalism; and the European historical and political experience;
• To synthesise the previous analysis in a global view about the factors configuring the values of culture in Europe.

The work of WP1 is focused on the analysis of two main factors and 5 main areas of investigation.

Factors

• The historical experience: its analysis will allow to identify the role that culture has been able to play in the past in the production of central social values, such as social integration in the territory
• The trends of contemporary social changes that influence the generation or transformation of the societal value of culture (changes in the organization of diversity and in the spatial structuring of social life)

Areas of investigation

• Gender and rising diversity
• Urbanisation, spatial and social segregation
• Globalization and digitization
• Neo-liberalism
• The European historical and political experience in relation with the promotion of cultural values

Completed deliverables

• D1.1 Analysis of the influence of gender and rising diversity in the configuration of the values of culture Download PDF

The partner responsible for this deliverable is the University of Barcelona.

The report has a double purpose. Firstly, it seeks to identify the factors that led the rising diversity and increasing gender equality in European societies in recent times. Secondly, it aims to analyze how these factors impact on the shaping of values of culture in three specific areas: institutionalized culture, cultural administrations and cultural policies, and citizen culture. The report analyzes the factors that contribute to the growth of diversity and gender equity, taking into account short- and long-term socio historical factors and the related social movements. Finally, the report points out how the positive value of diversity is reflected in the different configurations of cultural administration and in the orientations of cultural policies in a significant sample of European countries, representative of the different existing diversity profiles: UK, France, Germany, Spain and Bulgaria.

 

• D1.2 Analysis of the influence of urbanisation and social and spatial segregation in cities in the configuration of the values of culture Download PDF

The partners responsible for this deliverable are the University of Porto and ELTE University Budapest.

The report takes into account the major paradigm changes in the recent urban development by focusing on the social processes of gentrification, touristification and segregation, and its consequences on urban heritage preservation. The adopted analytical perspective focuses on general values, practices and policies in the worlds of culture. Some important indicators of urbanism and tourism are presented, followed by a final discussion on urban heritage in European cities.

 

• D1.3 Analysis of the influence of globalization and digitization in the configuration of the values of culture Download PDF

The partners responsible for this deliverable are University Paris 8 and Telemark Research Institute.

The report provides a review of values of culture relating to cultural administration, production and participation. The main strands of identified values are within the categories of: i) access – concerned with mere access as an end value, but also with access being seen as a tool for i.a. inclusion, cultural democracy and democratization -,ii) engagement and identification – finding that participation and diversity are core values that might lead to e.g. empowerment or identification -, and iii) production/performance. In general, the investigators find increasingly more critical views on the potential values of digitization in more contemporary research, especially in the categories of Access and Production/Performance.

Paris 8 ended its contribution to the project with the completion of WP1. The experts involved in the preparation of D1.3 continue to collaborate on a personal basis, as advisers within UB team.

 

• D1.4 Analysis of the influence of neo-liberalism in the configuration of the values of culture Download PDF

The partners responsible for this deliverable are Goldsmiths, University of London.

The report considers the relationship between the centrality of neoliberal, or market-based, logics and the prioritisation of instrumental cultural values in the cultural fields of thirty European countries. Through an analytical coding of the Council of Europe’s Compendium of Cultural Policies and Cultural Trends (2020), the report identifies the relative deployment of civic and politico-economic cultural values across Alexander and Peterson Gilbert’s Resistant, Emergent, Established, and Dominant (REED) typology of European neoliberal cultural policy regimes. A broad correlation between the centrality of market-based logics in cultural policy and the relative importance of civic and politico-economic cultural values is recognised, although this varies in regard to the specific cultural value. Positioning the instrumental cultural values in relation to Eurostat cultural expenditure and participation datasets illustrates that the deployment of civic and politicoe-conomic cultural values increases with greater cultural participation but declines with increased expenditure on culture as a percentage of total government spending.

 

• D1.5 Analysis of the European historical and political experience in acknowledging and promoting the values of culture Download PDF

The partners responsible for this deliverable are CNRS, CEPEL research unit at Montpellier and ELTE University Budapest.

The report questions the configurations in which European cultural policies attribute values to culture. It begins with a reflection on the meaning of value, then goes on to identify the numerous values identifiable in the history of cultural policies. A principle of classification into 5 major families of values is proposed: democracy, identity, well-being, aesthetics and economy. Finally, the report describes the dynamics of emergence and transformation of the values attributed to culture in historical configurations, through 3 examples: the valuation of heritage, the conflicts over the values of democracy, and the values underpinning the concept of sustainable development.

 

• D1.6 Synthesis of theory, literature and existent data about factors configuring the values of culture in Europe Download PDF

The partner responsible for this deliverable is the University of Barcelona.

The report synthesises the previous exploration of the research literature and existing data on the factors and circumstances influencing the shaping of the values of culture in Europe. The work is organised taking into account the factors and circumstances analysed in previous deliverables D1.1, D1.2, D.1.3, D1.4 and D1.5, namely:

1. 1. Gender and rising diversity (D1.1)
   2. Urbanisation and spatial and social segregation (D1.2)
   3. Globalisation and digitisation (D1.3)
   4. Neo-liberalism (D.1.4)
   5. The European historical and political experience in relation with the promotion of cultural values (D.1.5)

Events

16-17 September 2021, First co-creation Workshop in Porto