MESOC

H2020-EU3.6.2

MESOC is a Research and Innovation Action designed to propose, test and validate an innovative and original approach to measuring the societal value and impacts of culture and cultural policies and practices, related to three cross-cutting themes of the new European Agenda for Culture:

1) Health and Wellbeing

2) Urban and Territorial Renovation

3) People’s Engagement and Participation

The global aim is to respond to the challenge posed by the H2020 Call (“To develop new perspectives and improved methodologies for capturing the wider societal value of culture, including but also beyond its economic impact”).

To do so, MESOC adapts and further develops a method for “transition based” impact assessment derived from a previous UNESCO Chair publication, building a structural model of the Societal Dimension of Culture, as defined by one of the strategic objectives of the European Agenda.

The model will be tested within 10 European pilot cities: Athens, Barcelona, Cluj-Napoca, Gent, Issy-les-Moulineaux, Milan, Rijeka, Turku, Valencia and Warsaw.

MESOC is developed by 10 partners from 7 European countries (namely: Belgium, Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Romania and Spain) to which Finland and Poland should be added as non-partner cities, which will however be affected by some crucial project activities.

eConcult (ES), KEA European Affairs (BE), DAStU – Politecnico di Milano (IT), University of Barcelona – School of Economics and Business (ES), Relais Culture Europe (FR), City of Rijeka (HR), City of Athens – DAEM (GR), City of Cluj Napoca – Cluj Cultural Center (RO), Worldcunch (FR), University of Rijeka (HR).

innovation, culture, economics, Europe

• Cristian Baghiu
• Borja Abril
• Francesco Molinari

• European Union

• eConcult
• KEA European Affairs
• DAStU – Politecnico di Milano
• University of Barcelona – School of Economics and Business
• Relais Culture Europe
• City of Rijeka
• City of Athens – DAEM
• City of Cluj Napoca – Cluj Cultural Center
• Worldcunch
• University of Rijeka
• External Advisory Board

An innovative methodology. MESOC adapts and develops a method derived from a previous UNESCO Chair publication, to build a structural model of the Societal Dimension of Culture, as defined by one of the strategic objectives of the new European Agenda for Culture, which is used as an evaluative tool to assess the societal value and impacts of cultural policies and practices related to three cross-cutting themes of the Agenda: Health and Wellbeing, Urban and Territorial Renovation, People's Engagement and Participation.

An alternative approach to impact measurement, based on an ex-ante and/or ex-post reconstruction of the underlying theory of change supporting innovations in cultural policies and practices.

Cooperation with relevant third parties (in particular international statistical and policy research institutions such as UNESCO, OECD, JRC and Eurostat) will be actively sought and maintained since the early stages of the project. Other stakeholders at national and regional levels will be engaged during awareness raising, dissemination and survey activities.

A participative and co-creative approach in MESOC deployed in two main stages:

• For the validation, at pilot city level, of the initial evidence gathered through literature search and analysis, confirmed by Delphi consultations of domain experts.
• For the broadening, at European level, of the scope and potential of the suggested evaluation method and toolkit, via user and stakeholder surveys.

• EU - Horizon Europe (HE): ERC (European Research Council) projects

MESOC: Measuring the social dimension of culture