This document consists of 9 sections corresponding to 7 Reports and 2 Focus on cultural and social participation, investigated from economic and social perspectives, and their relations with economic resilience in Italy, with specific attention to the distribution across regions and territorial areas. Attention is paid to definitional issues and to the trends of indicators for Italian territories.
The concepts of "cultural participation", "social participation", "social cohesion" and "social sustainability" are all quite elusive and have been measured in different ways in the literature, generally using composite indicators. Therefore, the document recalls some methodological points on the definition and measurement of indicators. It provides an overview of the trends over time (focusing on the last decade) and the spatial distribution in Italy of these indicators. Attention is paid to the role of digitalization in shaping different forms of cultural and social participation.
The relationships between the indicators are analysed. The Deliverable is characterized by the interdisciplinarity of approaches, both among the various sections that comprise it and within each individual Report. In the initial Reports, where defining and methodological aspects are significant, sociological approaches play an essential role, whereas in the Reports of the second part, an economic analysis approach predominates.
The content of this Deliverable draws on specific articles and working papers published or in the process of being published by researchers from various institutions contributing to the work package. What is written in this Deliverable is intentionally presented in a layman's tone; the strictly scientific details and the sound methodological foundations are contained in the scientific articles and working papers on which this Report is based.
Few points mentioned are currently being developed and will be presented in working papers or articles, which are expected to be finalized by the end of the project. Some of the main findings contained in this Report can be summarized as follows. iii There is a marked dualism in cultural participation in Italy, reflecting the economic dualism.
Exceptions (at the level of individual provinces or territorial areas) do exist, but they do not alter the fundamental picture of a dualistic division. There is a clear complementarity in the spatial distribution between in-person cultural participation and online activities: where one is higher, the other is also higher. However, there is a noticeable tendency to substitute in-person participation with online cultural activities, especially in some forms of cultural participation (namely, cinema attendance) and especially following the 2020 lockdown shock.
Since access to online tools shows fewer territorial inequalities compared to other variables, such as income, it might be expected that this substitution process would lead to reduced inequalities. However, this is not at all clear, at least based on much of the data collected and presented. Significant inequalities, particularly concerning education, human capital, and social capital make it problematic to conclude that increasing access to communication and participation tools via digital platforms reduces cultural participation inequalities between different areas of the country.
