In the last decades, policy discussions have increasingly considered participation in arts and cultural activities as a vehicle to reach broader social policy goals, such as social inclusion or active citizenship. However, convincing empirical evidence on the social impacts of arts and culture is still scarce. In particular, little attention has been given to the impact that cultural participation may have on individuals' engagement in civil society, especially in Europe. In order to address this lack of evidence, this paper explores the connection between cultural participation and civic participation in Italy using Likert-scale data collected in the ISTAT "Aspetti della Vita Quotidiana" Survey (2014). To do so, two composite indicators-the participation in cultural life indicator and the participation in civic life indicator-have been built using an approach based on partial order theory and the concept of Average Rank. The effect of cultural participation on civic engagement has been estimated using a quantile regression model which controls for potentially cofounding factors such as education, income, age and gender. Results do confirm that participation in arts and cultural activities is highly correlated with participation in civic life. It is particularly worth noticing that at higher levels of civic participation, cultural participation has a positive and strong effect on civic engagement of people having a low educational level.
Cultural and creative sectors (CCS) are increasingly recognized as a driving economic force. In addition to their undisputed soft power, creative jobs are expected to prove more resilient to automation, and may therefore play an important role in the future growth cycles of advanced global economies. But how is Brexit going to affect the UK’s flourishing creative economy at an urban level? Pre-Brexit evidence from the European Commission’s Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor (CCCM) clearly shows that UK cultural and creative cities excel in Europe in their capacity to attract and integrate foreign creative professionals. Creative non-nationals represent a diverse, crucial human capital pool for CCS, as 22% of CCS employers hire at least one non-UK worker. The effect of Brexit on the cultural and creative potential of UK cities can be devastating for CCS competitiveness if not properly addressed. As CCSs are widely regarded as leading sectors of the UK economy and major drivers of innovation and growth in the UK’s long-term developmental vision, suitable policy measures should be taken to prevent this possibility.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.