INVENT CONFERENCE ROTTERDAM – Session I

Session 1: Culture for Everyone? Societal Support for Culture and Cultural Policy

Have you ever wondered how people in different European societies look at culture and cultural policy and how important they consider government support for different areas of culture? Members of the INVENT team will delve into this topic during Session 1 of the INVENT Conference 2021. Will you join us? You can register here.

The INVENT project sets out to take inventory of culture and what it means to different people, to serve as a basis for developing more inclusive cultural policies. Throughout the research process, the INVENT team aims to approach matters of culture from the bottom-up to allow the voices of European citizens to be heard.

What value do they ascribe to the different facets within the cultural sector? How does support for culture and cultural policy vary among Europeans of differing social (demographic, socio-economic, ethnic, religious…) groups in nine different European countries?

This first session of the INVENT Conference addresses these questions. The session allows policymakers, researchers, and other actors in the cultural field to gain more insight into the views of culture held by European citizens. Such knowledge is a prerequisite for the development of cultural policies that take into account the needs and interests of diverse members of European societies.

Session speakers:

• Cultural Policy From Below: EU Agenda meets local contexts

Mirko Petric (Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar)

Mirko Petrić – co-leader of the Croatian INVENT team – works as an expert adviser at the Institute of Social Sciences “Ivo Pilar“ and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Zadar (Croatia). He specializes in cultural sociology and has worked as a researcher in several international projects (FP5, The British Council, SNFS, UNESCO IFCD).

• Citizens’ Support for Public Funding of Culture across Europe

Susanne Janssen (Erasmus University Rotterdam) & Željka Zdravković (Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar)

Susanne Janssen – leader of the INVENT consortium and the Dutch INVENT team –  is Professor of Sociology of Media and Culture and Research Director at the Department of Media and Communication of Erasmus University Rotterdam and founding academic director of the Erasmus Research Centre for Media, Communication and Culture (ERMeCC). Her current research focuses on the impacts of increased diversity, globalization, migration, and digitalization in the fields of media, culture, education, and politics.

Željka Zdravković – member of the Croatian INVENT team – is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Zadar (Croatia) and Research Associate at the Institute of Social Sciences “Ivo Pilar”. She specializes in quantitative research methods and was responsible for data analysis in projects on youth, women, media and urban space.

• EU cultural policy and audience perspectives: How attitudes towards European culture are related to media usage and country context

Marc Verboord (Erasmus University Rotterdam)

Marc Verboord – member of the Dutch INVENT team – is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Media and Communication at Erasmus University Rotterdam. His research is situated at the cross-roads of cultural sociology, media studies and communication science and addresses cultural consumption, cultural globalization, and the impact of new media on cultural evaluation.