The Cultural and Creative Sectors (CCS) has undergone very significant changes in recent years, driven mainly by technological developments and further developments are expected in the next few years. Given that this sector has an important contribution to the European economy with a particular impact on job creation, the European statistical system must be kept up to date to allow a regular statistical analysis of the economic, cultural, and social potential of CCS in Europe.
In fact, the New European Agenda for Culture and the EU Work Plan for Culture 2019-2022 highlight among the list of priorities the production of cultural statistics: “Digitalisation and cultural statistics are important horizontal issues which will be considered accordingly. Digitalisation creates new and innovative possibilities for art and culture in terms of access, expression, preservation, dissemination and consumption. Cultural statistics support evidence-based policy making at European and national level. The regular production of comparable and reliable cultural statistics over time allows for the identification of trends and the design of sound policies”.
It is in this context that the Pilot Project titled “Measuring the Cultural and Creative Sectors in the EU” has been launched, with funding and the guidance of DG EAC with the main purpose of elaborating a new statistical framework to measure the Cultural and Creative Sectors in the EU.
The Project’s objectives are to be reached through an extensive review of data sources available at international, national and industry level and further research proposals on how to fill data gaps that cannot be covered through existing data sources.
The definition that is used as a basis for the scope of the study is the one described in the Creative Europe Programme (EU Regulation No 1295/2013 on the Creative Europe Programme): “All sectors whose activities are based on cultural values and/or artistic and other creative expressions, whether those activities are market- or non-market-oriented, whatever the type of structure that carries them out, and irrespective of how that structure is financed. Those activities include the development, the creation, the production, the dissemination and the preservation of goods and services which embody cultural, artistic or other creative expressions, as well as related functions such as education or management. The cultural and creative sectors include inter alia architecture, archives, libraries and museums, artistic crafts, audiovisual (including film, television, video games and multimedia), tangible and intangible cultural heritage, design, festivals, music, literature, performing arts, publishing, radio and visual arts”. And, the starting point for the analysis of data (and data gaps) is the Eurostat’s NACE classification per single cultural and creative economic activity and sources used to measure the different variables.
The research already underway, has started with the inventory of sources. This inventory will include the official statistics of all EU countries and the relevant (quantification) work already carried out under related EU studies, other past and current studies, projects on specific cultural sectors funded by different EU programs, the European Parliament and other relevant research. It will also include EU legislation with an impact on the scope and framework of the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs) as well as international research, such as that carried out by the European Audio-visual Observatory, UNESCO Institute for Statistics and others. The other important sources taken into account at this stage of the project are the Industry statistics, national data available at single Member States’ level including their culture satellite accounts (when they exist) and the European System of National and Regional Accounts.
After the inventory of sources the research and analytical work will proceed in order to achieve the stated objectives that will enable a thorough review of the current statistical analysis of the economical, cultural and social potential of the CCS in Europe, and provide an up-to-date perspective of the sector in the EU.
If you would like to point us to potential sources, or support this effort through one of our events, please share your interest with us at comms[at]measuring-ccs.eu.
Susana Justo
General Manager at Qmetrics and Project Coordinator
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