Cultural Indicators

Cultural indicators are important because they help arts organisations, governments and communities to articulate the value of cultural activities and art within wider contexts. Their evolution from an ancillary measure of socio-economic ‘progress’ to a metric of the overall wellbeing of arts organisations, communities and even whole nations, is a welcome development, as is the move to include more qualitative and mixed methods data gathering.

… Examining the Building Blocks of Cultural …, 2003

In recent years, the multifarious possible connections between culture and development have become a hot issue in the global debate. One of the most important actors in this debate is the United Nations (UN) agency responsible for culture, i.e. the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The present paper focuses on the role that UNESCO plays, and might play, in understanding and strengthening the relationship between culture and development, especially by means of its Culture for Development Indicators (CDIS).

The Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society, 2005

The purpose of this paper is to assess the value that UNESCO has given to the concept of cultural diversity as a driver and enabler for sustainable development. I will be presenting their achievements in developing the research and the legal frameworks that strengthened the important role of culture for development. Also, I will show the continuous challenges and gaps faced by UNESCO in strengthening the integration of culture in the UN and global development policies, such as integrating culture in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the post-2015 Development Agenda. Furthermore, this study will show that the new role of culture is intrinsically related to globalization and what extent the UN and UNESCO have evolved structurally to face those new challenges.

Culture is a fundamental domain of social life. However, there are currently no developed guidelines for assessing the cultural impact, sustainability or vibrancy of cultural development. While well-established economic and environmental impact assessments exist, in the domain of culture there are no more than a series of beginnings in the fields of heritage and indigenous studies. The overall goal of this Report is to develop the principles, protocols, indicators and tools for a cultural impact assessment process. The Report was commissioned in the framework of the revision of Agenda 21 for culture (2013-2015) and it also contributes to the activities of the Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments for Post-2015 Development Agenda towards Habitat III (2016).

This research shows the results of the implementation of a public cultural policy at the municipal level and has as a main objective to evaluate, from the perspective of the agenda 21 of culture, the program "Art for social development" by the Municipal Institute of Art and Culture developed in a secondary-level boarding school located at the Topolobampo community, in the municipality of Ahome, Mexico. A QUAN-QUAL methodology was used with instruments like questionnaires applied to the young participants and interviews with the workshop facilitators and administrative staff. Guitar, painting and theatre workshops were given, through which the development of new artistic expression skills was achieved, as well as contributing to the strengthening of social behaviors such as tolerance, patience and interpersonal communication, among others. It was found the constant need of having permanent programs of integral training, both in the field of artistic training and socio-emotional, giving priority to groups at risk, such as students of the boarding school that mostly come from families of scarce resources, some of the low performance academic and aggressive behavior. The conclusion is that public policies are required to promote greater articulation of education and culture in order to have a stronger impact on the social and cultural inclusion of young people.