Culture as a Prerequisite for Sustainable Development. An Investigation into the Process of Cultural Content Digitisation in Romania

Abstract

In an age of rapid technological changes, new ways of cultural production-consumption and dissemination-access to cultural content are creating great opportunities for promoting cultural heritage at home and abroad as a prerequisite for sustainable development. The aims of this paper are to scrutinize the main opportunities of the process of cultural content digitisation with a focus on Romania and to highlight the main fields in which the country is still lagging behind. The article discusses technical internet-related endowment and use of internet by households in urban and rural areas, the existing digital cultural content, the importance of open access, e-accessibility, digital archives, e-museums, e-libraries, etc., as well as the main national and European strategies and agendas that Romania has based its cultural digitisation and heritage preservation priorities on. The paper is an empirical inquiry into the progress achieved, the positioning among the other European countries and the perspectives of cultural digitisation for Romania. Such matters are important determinants of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, as long as access to public services and cultural content is a major objective of Europe 2020 Strategy.

Achieving Cultural Sustainability in Museums: A Step Toward Sustainable Development

“…The lowest kurtosis value can be noticed in the case of the fifth item, which denotes that Romanian museums tend to have difficulties regarding the inclusion of their heritage in a digital database. This result is in line with a previous research conducted by Fanea-Ivanovici [10], who revealed that Romania has only 154,830 items included in Europeana, which places it in 24th position out of a total number of 44 providing countries. However, besides the first item, the skewness and kurtosis coefficients have values between ±2, which are considered acceptable [66].…”

“…Another important factor is the national support offered to cultural institutions for digitizing their heritage. As Fanea-Ivanovici [10] highlighted, in Romania, the lack of funds is the main reason for which the number of objects included in Europeana per number of inhabitants is one of the lowest in Europe.…”

The digital economy in Romania: theoretical approaches and the current state of development in the context imposed by the European Union

“…To achieve this, collaboration must be pursued for a more inclusive digital economy and guarantee unrestricted access to digital skills for all EU citizens, in order to enjoy prosperity and build a more digital Europe. However, the fact that the largest economies in the EU are not digital leaders indicates the need to speed up the digital transformation process so that the EU is at the required level of competitiveness [13,18].…”

The Impact of Value Created by Culture on Approaching the Sustainable Development Goals: Case of the Baltic States

“…The scientists [6][7][8][9][10][11][12] stress that culture provides an important input into functionalizing city and community, acknowledges that community vitality and life quality are determined by the involvement in cultural activities, and cultural value forms society's lifestyle and thus can determine its changes that are necessary to assure sustainable development. Culture helps to create vivid cities and communities where people can live, work, and play an important role when contributing to social and economic welfare [13,14]. Thus, the integration of culture into the process of sustainable development not only determines the success of the process itself, but also contributes to the improvement of the quality of life in society.…”