survey and studies „Cultural Participation in Berlin”

In-depth knowledge of the population’s current level of cultural participation is the fundamental basis for developing cultural participation strategies to be adopted by cultural institutions, and for establishing a cultural policy and administration.

Against this backdrop, the IKTf regularly conducts large-scale, representative surveys in Berlin. The aim here is to determine the current level of cultural participation and to obtain practical information on how cultural institutions, cultural policy and cultural administration can develop strategies and operational measures for greater and broader cultural participation. The study series is based on a broad concept of culture: The focus is therefore not only on classical cultural offerings or so-called high culture – the cultural and leisure offerings examined in the study also include film screenings/cinemas, zoos, musicals, sporting events, clubs/discos or educational offerings such as libraries and adult education centres. Furthermore, there is no definition of the area of publicly funded cultural and leisure institutions. The study also includes the independent scene, socio-culture, offerings financed privately, offerings outside of cultural and leisure institutions (e.g. in schools, clubs, in the city) as well as cultural visits while travelling or abroad.

The study series analyses the cultural participation of the Berlin population in part according to socio-demographic factors, such as formal education, age, gender, income, etc. In addition, cultural participation in the Berlin population is examined according to lifestyle. Lifestyles are based on information about people’s attitudes, values, life goals and everyday practices. They describe Berliners in a more striking and tangible way and thus generally enable a deeper understanding of cultural participation and its development over time than socio-demographic characteristics alone can achieve. In addition, programmes, cultural marketing or cultural mediation measures can be developed by cultural and leisure institutions for different lifestyles, for example.

The study, which is conducted every two years, not only sheds light on who actually takes advantage of the capital’s cultural and leisure offerings. It also examines the possible reasons that prevent Berliners from attending such offerings. Apart from passive cultural visits, the study takes an in-depth look at the question of the extent to which the capital’s residents are culturally active themselves in their leisure time. That is because people can also participate in cultural life by painting, singing or dancing in their private leisure time, for example, or by being a member of an amateur theatre group or by participating in the design of programs at cultural and leisure institutions in the form of co-creations.

The population survey was conducted between June and October 2019 for the first time. Around 13,000 Berliners were contacted and asked to participate. Their contact details were randomly selected and provided by the Residents’ Registration Office. They received the surveys available in multiple languages (German, English, Arabic, Russian, Turkish) by post or as an online survey, if desired. Approximately 3,400 completed surveys were included in the analysis.