Abstract
Multiple organizations and institutions have been resorting to indicators on diverse aspects of culture (e.g., creativity, social cohesion, cultural vitality, economic participation), according to their particular purposes and views of what is to be measured. This paper presents results from a research report of a qualitative study that analyzed 35 papers on cultural indicators found via Internet, based on four categories: purpose, assumptions about culture, concept of culture they sustain, and dimensions of indicators considered. Results show that even when the importance of culture is widely recognized in the papers, most of them propose indicators without having solid theoretical foundations, and with an emphasis on the relation between culture and economy. Also, most of the documents do not have a definition of culture or present an instrumental conceptualization of it, where culture is valued not as an end in itself but as a resource than can serve to development.
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Notes
Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs, are a series of goals proposed by UNESCO to be achieved in 2015, including: eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability, and create global partnerships for development. (http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/).
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Ortega-Villa, L.M., Ley-Garcia, J. Analysis of Cultural Indicators: A Comparison of Their Conceptual Basis and Dimensions. Soc Indic Res 137, 413–439 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-017-1588-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-017-1588-2