European inventory of
societal values of culture

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Nick Ennis and Gordon Douglass (2011), Culture and regeneration – What evidence is there of a link and how can it be measured?, Greater London Authority, Working Paper 48

In the last decade, culture has gained prominence as a force for community and economic development. Investment in culture – whether festivals, big-ticket facilities, or youth programmes – is now commonplace. And large amounts of money has been spent on arts, cultural projects and buildings on the basis of their powers to revitalize neighbourhoods and cities. Cultural programmes are said to achieve a hugely broad range of economic, social (including health and wellbeing) and environmental benefits. This paper investigates the evidence of culture’s role in regenerating neighbourhoods. It will first review the existing literature and then discuss the methods used to evaluate cultural regeneration programmes and follows with a review of the lessons learned from these evaluations.