Descripció del projecte
Social cohesion is a concept that has been adopted by the political agenda due to growing economic inequalities, the general economic and cultural globalization, the flow of migrants across nation borders and security concerns (Larsen, 2014). Indexes that measure the state of social cohesion in the EU show a global decline, a growth in the perception of tensions between religious, racial and ethnic groups and big differences among countries when analysing trust between citizens. In our nearest context, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have led to “an increase in the level of poverty and extreme poverty of the population, a weakening of social cohesion and the expression of discontent of the general population”, as well as the possible exclusion of certain social groups and the manifestation of discrimination (Bosch i Gimpera Foundation & Universitat de Barcelona, 2020).
Within the concept of social cohesion are embedded a number of dimensions. These dimensions include the economic, social or cultural aspect, but this last dimension is the one that has least studied. For that reason, the main focus of this research project will be studying the impact of the cultural dimension on social cohesion and the relationship between cultural factors and social cohesion, always in relation with the other facets of the term.
Considering that the historic approach to the strains in the dimension of social cohesion has been done from an economic perspective, through economic redistributive policies for example, or through the development of social policies but it omitted, hence the relevance of this proposal, the possibilities that can be unwrapped if a structural cultural policy is developed and central in public policies. As argued by Bryony Hoskins, “as a result of these major tensions today and due to a belief that societies should be fairer it is thus relevant both to understand how social cohesion is working across Europe today and to consider which steps are needed to be undertaken to move towards a fairer and more inclusive system” (Hoskins, 2009).
According to these ideas and arguments, the main research questions this project poses are: To what extent can cultural policies contribute to the processes of social cohesion? And secondly: What policy design needs to be developed in order to favour the different dimensions of social cohesion? This thesis faces the concept of social cohesion, the dependent variable, from the perspective of cultural policies, which will be my main independent variable. The main hypothesis to be tested will be: the construction of our values, attitudes and behaviours as citizens that make up the EU society and represent its values will vary depending on the type of cultural policies developed.
The focus of research will be a systematic analysis between cultural policies and social cohesion in a number of European cities that show variations in the relationship between those variables. Thus, the research will focus on good examples and best practices of cultural policies that contribute to social cohesion as a learning process in public policies (policy diffusion). Structured as an industrial PhD, this PhD thesis aims at helping the Barcelona City Council improve the quality of cultural policies in the area of social cohesion. This is why good examples of the relationship between cultural policy and social cohesion in European cities will be studied through instruments of policy diffusion and policy learning in the field of public policy.
Based on the research questions, the main goal of this research is the study of the relationship between cultural policies and social cohesion by analysing European policies that have tackled the topic of social cohesion through cultural policies.
– Regarding the social capital dimension of social cohesion, the first objective is the study of the relationship between the cultural engagement and the values, attitudes and behaviours associated to citizenship.
– Secondly, following the social cohesion dimension of inequalities, the next objective is analysing what kind of policy favours equity and justice in a greater way.
– A third objective, taking into account how broad arts and culture are, is the comparison and contrast of artistic languages to identify what effects they produce in our dependent variable.
– In relation to the later, the last objective of this thesis is the analysis in the relationship between processes of intervention and social cohesion.
