European inventory of
societal values of culture

Ranaivoson - The determinants of the diversity of cultural expressions

Ranaivoson, H. (2010). The determinants of the diversity of cultural expressions – An international quantitative analysis of diversity of production in the recording industry. Observatorio, 4(4): 215-249.

This paper emphasises the importance of a precise understanding of cultural diversity for policymakers. Instead of simply promoting and protecting cultural diversity, policymakers need to specify which aspects of diversity their policies aim to enhance at the expense of which other aspects. Trade-offs should be made clearer, and the research’s approach can be applied to other cultural and media sectors to better understand cultural diversity and its implications.

The starting point of the discussion is that after adopting the Unesco Convention on Cultural Diversity in October 2005, the issue of what could favour diversity of production in the media and cultural industries has become even more crucial. It is true that there has been a long tradition of economic analysis of the diversity of production. However, the analysis so far has had two flaws. First, there have been few quantitative and, most of all, few econometric studies. Second, such studies have never gone beyond the influence of market structure.

This article aims to fill both gaps in the analysis. It proposes a multidisciplinary overview of the literature devoted to the determiners of diversity of production in the cultural and media industries. Then it applies an econometric analysis of these determiners in the case of the recording industry. To conduct the analysis, the author used a database on 69 countries built from data provided by the Industrial Federation of the Phonographic Industry and its national branches.

The paper concludes that cultural diversity is a multidimensional phenomenon. Different viewpoints, such as origin, title, novelty, distribution, and selling points, may present trade-offs within cultural diversity. Contradictions are observed, such as a higher diversity of distributors associated with fewer certified titles. This understanding of contradictions aids in comprehending the functioning of the global recording industry.