Future Trends: Addressing cultural and other inequalities at scale

There is currently keen interest in the social inequalities in the creative economy. Publicly funded arts organisations are seeking new ways of engaging with communities to ensure art can be for the many and not the few.

While the UK City of Culture programme, similar cultural mega-events rooted within place, and priority area funding programmes from Arts Council England have reduced spatial inequalities, they do not seek to reduce social inequalities as a priority. However, social and spatial inequalities are intrinsically linked, something that Coventry UK CoC 2021 was unique in recognising when it put hyper-local co-creation front and centre.

By focusing on hyper-local offerings, the programme offered local proximity, (important to people who do not often engage with culture or who are in lower economic groups,) and the potential for a sense of ownership by the kinds of people who are most often missing from cultural spaces.

'Social and spatial inequalities are intrinsically linked. Coventry UK 2021 was unique on recognising this when it put hyper-local co-creation front and centre'

Read the paper Addressing Cultural and Other Inequalities at Scale (PDF)

The Future Trends series, published as part of the Warwick UK Cities of Culture Project and commissioned by the AHRC, discusses ways of thinking about the value of culture: the importance of research in understanding the place of culture in everyday lives, its impact on local people, society, economy and wellbeing and prosperity at large; and how this research-informed approach connects with the needs of policy making.