How access to culture for young people has changed in recent years and in different European countries
How access to culture for young people has changed in recent years and in different European countries
By
Interarts
This research review brings together studies into the way young people access culture in a number of countries, including Young Tate in Liverpool or Hip Hop Academy Hamburg. Arts marketers will gain an overview of the different contexts for youth access. There is a summary of the main findings covering barriers such as financial, geographical etc, and makes recommendations for improving access to culture. This is a useful document for setting your strategies in context and to evidence your access decisions.
The ways young people access culture as users or creators, or simply participants of a cultural experience, are various and include, apart from classic channels and institutions, dynamic youth culture channels.
That is why, when looking at the cultural activities in which young people are involved, the study emphasises both
• the cultural construction of youth (the ways through which cultural institutions model young peoples lives); and
• the juvenile construction of culture (the ways through which young people participate into cultural life). This includes the Youth Culture Trends (cultural phenomena experienced by young people that can become relevant for the whole generation or the surrounding society).
Main Conclusions
1. Young people are not a homogeneous group and need differentiated, coordinated and long-term policies for accessing culture, even if the same trends can be observed in most of the countries.
There are differences between young people in urban environment and in rural environment, differences between young people in interactive, cosmopolitan and diverse urban environments and young people in more homogenous and closed urban environments. There are also differences between countries where youth culture is more marked by the ‘new comers’ – recent immigration – and countries where there is a longer tradition of cultural diversity.
