Research activities
Cultural participation can take place in very diverse ways. This also goes for the factors that foster or perhaps hinder such involvement. The aspects and topics at the centre of the IKTf’s research activities are commensurately multifaceted. However, they can be broken down into three larger areas:
- Determining the status quo of cultural participation
- Strategies for greater and broader participation in cultural and leisure offerings
- Effects of social developments on cultural participation in the cultural sector
Determining the status quo of cultural participation
To understand the status quo of cultural participation, it is necessary to have in-depth information, which can serve as one of the main foundations for developing cultural participation strategies. One of IKTF’s fields of research is therefore to find out the extent to which people themselves are artistically and creatively active, attend cultural and leisure offerings or even get involved in their design. What are the motives behind this and what barriers stand in the way? Of interest here are, on the one hand, comprehensive socio-demographic factors influencing cultural participation, including, for example, age, gender, income and formal education. But also the patterns of behaviour, interactions, opinions, knowledge and mindsets of people – summarised under so-called lifestyles – have a significant influence on cultural participation and are studied by the IKTf.
Strategies for greater and broader participation in cultural and leisure offerings
The IKTf also researches the activities of cultural and leisure offerings for greater and broader cultural participation. On the one hand, it considers different organisational philosophies and management concepts of cultural and leisure offerings. Among others, the IKTf looks at their organisational structures and personnel. On the other hand, it studies the extent to which their strategic and practical work brings about greater and broader cultural participation. For example, the programme of cultural and leisure institutions and how they address and reach different target groups are examined. Parallel to this, the IKTf studies funding measures for cultural and leisure offerings undertaken by cultural administrations and policy circles as framework conditions for cultural participation.
Effects of social developments on cultural participation in the cultural sector
The IKTf is also concerned with the effects that social developments have on the cultural sector. These include influential factors such as digitisation, demographic change, shifts in the world of work and urban development processes. On the one hand, the IKTf looks at the effects of these social changes on the cultural sector, including, for example, the working conditions of cultural producers in general. On the other hand, it looks at how the cultural sector is responding to social changes – for example, by creating digital cultural and leisure offerings.
