- JUNE 1, 2023
- CULTURAL POLICY, SWEDEN
The Swedish Agency for Cultural Policy Analysis (Kulturanalys) has released a report on Broadened Participation in Culture (“att bredda deltagandet i kulturlivet“). This in-depth research was carried out with the ambition to broaden citizen participation and emanates from the Swedish cultural policy objective that everyone should have the possibility to participate in culture.
In 248 pages, the report aims to identify obstacles to broadened participation and to suggest policy measures that could contribute to overcoming these obstacles. To achieve this aim, five in-depth studies have been conducted, each with a different methodological approach to secure a variety of different empirical material.
The review of the material shows that obstacles to broadened participation are rooted in several different areas. Besides more obvious factors like the socioeconomic and demographic status of the citizens, geographical distance, logistic failures, vulnerable national infrastructure for culture, limited financial resources and the exclusion of people based on differences in cultural preference proved to be of high importance.
The Compendium welcomes the thematic focus on broadened participation in culture, as the freedom to participate in culture is the foundation of artistic freedom itself, the topic of our research campaign “Barriers to Freedom of Artistic Expression”.
