Themes & Outputs.
Theme 1
The values of culture and the purposes of cultural policy: How has COVID-19 changed our perceptions of culture, and what new social consensus is emerging regarding the values of culture and the purpose of cultural policy?
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Theme 2Institutions of cultural work: How do existing ‘institutions of cultural work’ function? What are the potential ways for them to evolve to more effectively tackle the precarity in cultural work exacerbated by the pandemic?
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Theme 3Digitalised cultural consumption: How do cultural organisations reconcile their beliefs in materiality and ‘live’ with the new digital necessity? Whether and how can the online delivery of digitalised cultural content bring larger and broader audiences to culture?
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Outputs
Theme 1
Survey Report on Cultural Engagement and Cultural Values in England
This survey report is the first deliverable of the SCF project by the UK team (KCL) on Theme 1. The core aim of Theme 1 is to examine the changing understanding of cultural values and the purposes of cultural policy in the COVID and post-COVID contexts. For this purpose, public opinion surveys were carried out in the UK and Japan with questionnaires co-developed by the UK and Japanese teams. This report summarises the main findings of the UK survey (England) focused on the public’s perception of culture, their cultural life, and their views of cultural values and cultural policy. Our key findings affirm the importance of childhood cultural experience for cultural engagement in adulthood and the stickiness of cultural non-participation. It also found that whilst the English public prefers in-person cultural engagement and their level of engagement is likely to rise, nearly 40% are still hesitant to visit cultural venues due to the risk of contracting the COVID-19 virus. The public values various contributions of culture and associates various social values with cultural policy and local cultural organisations. This raises a question on how a good balance can be stricken among different values, what values should be policy priorities and how the decision should be made. Another important finding is the clear correlation between the interest in the arts and social participation, implying policymakers should approach cultural access and engagement from more holistic and societal perspectives. Finally, some of our findings directly feed into local cultural policy and management.
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Theme 2
Research Report on Policy Approaches to Tackle Precarity in Freelance Cultural Work
This report is delivered by the UK team (KCL) as part of Theme 2 of the SCF research project. The main aim of Theme 2 is to pinpoint potential ways for existing institutions of cultural work to tackle the issue of precarity in freelance cultural work. To this end, we interviewed 17 representatives from four groups of stakeholders across the cultural sector (i.e., campaigners/campaign group representatives, trade union representatives, policymakers, and researchers in cultural labour and the creative industries). We asked them to talk about their prioritised policy solutions to the precarity issue. Based on this data, first, we highlight a range of challenges that continue to perpetuate the precarity of freelance cultural work, thematising these in three categories (i.e., societal, labour market and sectoral conditions). Second, although our interviewees struggled to pinpoint specific policy measures to tackle the issue, we discuss more general policy directions. These include the apparent need to involve freelance cultural workers more in policymaking, as well as the wider need for a complex ecological approach to tackle the freelancer precarity. Third, we report on some more narrow policy solutions floated by some of the interviewees. Finally, we conclude by putting forward some fundamental questions for future research.
Theme 2 Outputs by Doshisha University
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Theme 3
Public survey report
Forthcoming
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