Measuring cultural and creative activities in European cities: challenges and practical problems with existing indices

For decades, the focus of cultural, social and economic policies has been shifting onto cities. Cities with the highest concentration of creative employment have demonstrated the greatest resilience in the post-2008 turmoil. Although, over the last few years, there has been an explosion of cultural or creative related indices for cities, no single reference index is commonly accepted. The main thrust of this article is the provision of a systematic and practical framework for a common point of departure for future index developers. To this end, thirty eight of the most influential culture and creativity indices were reviewed. By adoption of the indicator-driven approach, sixteen dimensions corresponding to aspects of culture and creativity were identified in the city context. These dimensions are presented in the taxonomy of three clusters: Core, Background and Outcomes. In addition, the main obstacles most commonly faced by index developers are described and grouped into four distinct conceptual challenges, namely i) precision; ii) diversity; iii) comparability; and iv) spillover. Each challenge is discussed in detail, accompanied by a systematic approach to its solution.

STANO Pawel;  WEZIAK-BIALOWOLSKA Dorota; 

2018-01-12

ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS

JRC102052

1040-0419,   

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10400419.2017.1360066,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC102052,   

10.1080/10400419.2017.1360066,