The relationship of civic participation to cultural engagement pulls us into an old controversy regarding intrinsic vs. instrumental values of the arts.In this presentation, Stern cites international scholarship—at the cross-section of welfare economics, philosophy, and social welfare—as a way out of this impasse. The Europeans have explored a multi-dimensional approach to social inclusion vs. social exclusion. He points out that viewing the arts and culture as a dimension of social inclusion changes the kinds of policy questions we ask about the sector. First, we'd focus on access and opportunity to participate in the arts and how these are distributed across the geographic and social landscape. Second, we could ask how cultural inclusion may provide a means of reducing other forms of social exclusion.
This paper reports early findings of a multi-city study of social wellbeing, neighborhood transformation, and the arts that builds on SIAP's Philadelphia research (Cultural Ecology, Neighborhood Vitality, and Social Wellbeing--A Philadelphia Project, Stern and Seifert, December 2013). The team used new data on Philadelphia to investigate ways in which two capabilities—economic wellbeing and social connection—influence four others—social stress, personal health, school effectiveness, and security. The appendix provides preliminary comparative data on four cities under study: Philadelphia, Austin, New York City, and Seattle. The paper was prepared for the Human Development and Capabilities Association September 2014 conference in Athens, Greece on the theme “Human Development in Times of Crisis: Renegotiating Social Justice.”
(2014-10-01) University of Pennsylvania Social Impact of the Arts Project (SIAP),; Reinvestment Fund,
This brief presents the research team’s rationale for the measurement of social wellbeing and its approach to documenting the cultural ecology and assessing the vitality of Philadelphia neighborhoods.