‘The social life of cultural value’

Culture and cultural development are now internationally recognised as important dimensions of contemporary governance and public policy. The production of accurate and relevant data has become central to cultural policy and how the cultural lives of citizens are understood. Conceptual and practical developments in measurement tools, such as cultural indicators, have the potential to enrich our understanding of culture's role in wellbeing, vitality and citizenship. From UNESCO's benchmarks for cultural freedom, through to comparative measures of cultural provision and creative cities indices, diverse approaches to quantifying cultural value and measuring societal progress now exist. But how useful are all these measures? Are they helping us to keep track of what matters? What opportunities exist to contest, refine or democratise these systems of cultural measurement? Making Culture Count brings together diverse perspectives from scholars, policy-makers and creative practitioners to explore the burgeoning field of cultural measurement and its political implications.