PhD defence Marjelle Oosterling-Vermeulen

The impact of cultural participation has increasingly become a central issue in the research area of arts and cultural studies. It is claimed that cultural participation has many social benefits, varying from a sense of well-being and life satisfaction to the development of skills and increased self-confidence. Moreover, it is argued that cultural participation contributes, among other things, to the feeling of social inclusion of participants, to the creation of a cohesive multicultural community and to individual, collective and societal identity. As a result, participation in cultural activities is increasingly seen as an instrument to achieve social change and development. Consequently, many stakeholders demand for transparency and accountability. They expect organizations in cultural and creative industries (CCI) to show their legitimacy and to be transparent about their achieved social impact. However, because of the lack of knowledge of impact and impact measurement and the lack of clear guidelines on how to measure and assess impact, many organizations in CCI struggle to be transparent about and to gain insight in their achieved social performances.