Measuring Cultural Value: A Holistic Approach by Dr. Claire Donovan

1. Measuring Cultural Value (phase 2) Dr Claire Donovan, Brunel University

2. Priceless? A holistic approach to ‘measuring’ cultural value Dr Claire Donovan, Brunel University

3. The context • AHRC/ESRC Public Service Placement Fellowship in partnership with Department of Culture, Media and Sport • competitive research grant • based at DCMS • part of wider DCMS initiative • Phase One (O’Brien, 2010) concluded that the cultural sector must use the concepts and tools of economics to make the case for public funding

4. Thevery idea of measuring cultural value • highly contested territory • cultural value is either ... • measureable byassigning monetary value, e.g. • willingness to pay • choice analysis • hedonic pricing • or ‘intangible’ so cannot be measured at all • two cultures of valuation: • cynics • sentimentalists

5. Two cultures of valuation “What cynics you fellows are!” “What is a cynic?” “A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.” “And a sentimentalist, my dear Darlington, is a man who sees an absurd value in everything, and doesn’t know the market price of a single thing.” - Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere’s Fan, Act 3.

6. The approach • A ‘cynical-sentimental’ approach • mirrors debates in assessing research impact, especially in humanities, creative arts and social sciences (Donovan 2008; 2011) • resistance to economic reductionism • ‘state of the art’ includes, and extends beyond, economic measures • Empirical testing of measures • do these potentially add value to making policy decisions about funding the cultural sector? • include measures of supposedly ‘intangible’ benefits alongside indicators drawn from cultural economics

7. The approach • Cross-sector credibility • Stakeholder involvement • workshops • the ‘Priceless?’ blog; Twitter • Stakeholder consensus • A ‘cynical-sentimental’ solution • Does the use of social media authentically represent public engagement in the cultural value debate? Welcome to the measuring cultural value debate which began in 2003 …. I wonder if you are trying to reinvent the wheel?

8. Phase Two conclusions • A holistic approach to ‘measurement’ • quantitative (monetary) • quantitative (non-monetary) • qualitative indicators • narrative approaches • Proportionality • ‘measures’ to fit scale of enterprise and desired outcomes • Abandon ‘toolkit’ • sector guidance more valuable • what ‘measures’ to use and when

9. Next steps • Final report (Summer 2012) • Dissemination • final report online (and hard copy?) • the ‘Priceless?’ blog • academic conferences and seminars • academic journal papers (with Dave O’Brien) • SRAC • Practitioner-oriented conferences and seminars • Can these novel approaches apply to ‘measuring’ other areas of public investment?

10. Any questions? claire.donovan@brunel.ac.uk