Social Capital and the Cultural sector

Report title: Social Capital and the Cultural sector: Literature Review prepared for the department of Culture, Media and Sport

Author: Dr Siobhan Daly

Institution: Centre of Civil Society, London School of Economics

Full reference: Daly, S. (2005) Social Capital and the Cultural sector: Literature Review prepared for the department of Culture, Media and Sport. Centre of Civil Society, London School of Economics

The purpose of this paper was to focus on the contribution of the cultural sector, as defined by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to building social capital. It reviews the academic literature on the relationship between social capital and the cultural sector, focusing on four key domains or areas:

(i) Sport
(ii) Arts
(iii) Heritage
(iv) Television

The analysis of existing research in the key domains or areas that make up the cultural sector revealed the following findings:

Sport

Despite the positive links that have been identified between sport and social capital, it is also necessary to consider the underlying problems and issues that risk compromising the benefits of this relationship (Dyreson 2001: 24-28):

Sport has created institutions that have proved conducive to division and disengagement, (e.g. divisions along gender lines, racism).

The Arts

The links between social capital and the arts, particularly the unincorporated (or citizen/community-based) arts are widely touted through case studies and anecdotal evidence of successful arts projects and initiatives in communities (e.g., Better Together Report 2000; Matarasso 1997; Gould 2001).

This may be attributed in part of course to the absence of systematic data on community based arts – as well as the difficulties encountered in ‘quantifying’ what are often quite informal activities (Peters and Cherbo 1998; Cooalter 2001).

Nonetheless, this research does provide us with valuable insights into how different activities and/or organisational forms engender different forms of social capital: whilst some have bridging effects, other are associated with the sometimes negative implications of bonding social capital.

Heritage

The potential for institutions (or cultural services) such as museums and libraries to contribute to building social capital is broadly acknowledged by research, policy makers and cultural services professionals alike.

For example, libraries are seen to be ideally placed to provide both the resources and space for fostering increased civic participation and engagement across all sections of a community. However, we still lack comprehensive evidence of the ability of libraries to conform to these expectations.

Similarly, increasing attention is being given to the potential for museums to ‘provide a physical and social focus for civic engagement’ (Bryson et al. 2002: 26), e.g., through projects within museums and community outreach programmes.

Television

Television, much to the chagrin of many observers represents an important part of our culture today. For example, Putnam’s (2000: 230-231) asserts that the more time people spend watching television correlates with declining civic participation and social engagement.

For many researchers of communication studies, the need to consider what people watch and not solely how much television people watch is fundamental to assessing the link between television and social capital (see Norris 1996).

Research Questions & Methodology

The purpose of this paper was to focus on the contribution of the cultural sector, as defined by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to building social capital. It reviews the academic literature on the relationship between social capital and the cultural sector, focusing on four key domains or areas:

(i) Sport
(ii) Arts
(iii) Heritage
(iv) Television

Data on the cultural sector

• Data gathered by the Arts Council (Skelton et al 2002) and by Sport England underline the extent and nature of participation in the arts and sports in the United Kingdom.
• This data does not tell us why certain age groups are more likely to attend or participate in certain activities over others, or what are the likely implications of participation in these activities.
• The concept of social capital and the ever-growing volume of literature that has developed around this phenomenon offer one way of exploring these types of questions.

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