This paper presents an innovative operationalization of world-system analysis through attributional data, and makes use of an innovative Artificial Neural Network computational tool, the Auto-Contractive Map (AutoCM), to analyze the core-periphery structure of a database including five well-known, publicly available indicators that can jointly be considered an empirical proxy of an open society formulation of Western governmentality: World Competitiveness Index; Freedom of Press Index; Economic Freedom Index; Corruption Perception Index; and UNDP Human Development Index. We find clear evidence of a core periphery structure in the data, which is largely coherent with a benchmark version obtained through an alternative computational method, the Self-Organizing Map (SOM). Moreover, we find that the resulting meta-geography of the world-system is still shaped by the colonialist geopolitics of the British Common-wealth as the key organizational backbone.
In this paper, we present an innovative data processing architecture, the Activation & Competition System (ACS), and show how this methodology allows us to reconstruct in detail some aspects of the fine grained structure of global relationships in the world order perspective, on the basis of a minimal dataset only consisting of the values of five publicly available indicators for 2007 for the 118 countries for which they are jointly available. ACS seems in particular to qualify as a valuable tool for the analysis of inter-country patterns of conflict and alliances, which may prove of special interest in the current situation of global strategic uncertainty in international relations.
The purpose of this study is to understand the impact of health status and cultural participation upon psychological well-being, with special attention to the interaction between patterns of cultural access and other factors known to affect psychological well-being. Data for this report were collected from a sample of 1,500 Italian citizens. A multi-step random sampling method was adopted to draw a large representative sample from the Italian population. Subjects underwent a standard questionnaire for psychological well-being [the Italian short form of the Psychological General Well Being Index (PGWBI)], and a questionnaire related to the frequency of participation to 15 different kinds of cultural activities during the previous year. The results show that, among the various potential factors considered, cultural access unexpectedly rankes as the second most important determinant of psychological well-being, immediately after the absence or presence of diseases, and outperforming factors such as job, age, income, civil status, education, place of living and other important factors. According to a semantic map generated by a powerful data mining algorithm, it turns out that different factors (among which cultural access and health status in particular) may be viewed as concurrent elements of a complex multi-causal scheme that seems to play a primary role in determining psychological distress or well-being. In particular, distress seems to be tightly connected with: living in the Southern part of Italy, average income level, living in semi-urban and urban areas, age group 46–60, presence of more than two concomitant diseases and a low level of cultural access. Well being, on the other hand, is tightly connected with: male gender, high cultural access, and absence of diseases. Some of these associations are confirmed by Principal Component Analysis.
We develop a new conceptual framework to analyze the evolution of the relationship between cultural production and different forms of economic and social value creation in terms of three alternative socio-technical regimes that have emerged over time. We show how, with the emergence of the Culture 3.0 regime characterized by novel forms of active cultural participation, where the distinction between producers and users of cultural and creative contents is increasingly blurred, new channels of social and economic value creation through cultural participation acquire increasing importance. We characterize them through an eight-tier classification, and argue on this basis why cultural policy is going to acquire a central role in the policy design approaches of the future. Whether Europe will play the role of a strategic leader in this scenario in the context of future cohesion policies is an open question.
This document has been prepared by Pier Luigi Sacco on behalf of the European Expert Network on Culture (EENC). Produced for the OMC working Group on Cultural and Creative Industries. This paper reflects the views only of the EENC authors and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. The EENC was set up in 2010 at the initiative of Directorate-General for Education and Culture of the European Commission (DG EAC), with the aim of contributing to the improvement of policy development in Europe. It provides advice and support to DG EAC in the analysis of cultural policies and their implications at national, regional and European levels. The EENC involves 17 independent experts and is coordinated by Interarts and Culture Action Europe.