PROJECT

The project “Cultural Welfare Ecosystems for Wellbeing: mapping semantics and practices, co-designing tools and raising awareness” is funded by the 2022 PNRR call for research projects on the practices and semantics of Cultural Welfare.

The project activities are organized around two key objectives.

On the one hand, the project aims to enrich the debate on the relationship between art and wellbeing, focusing on the emerging concept of cultural welfare. In particular, the project seeks to integrate the salutogenic approach by reframing it through the lens of cultural welfare ecosystems—frameworks capable of positively shaping modes of living, dwelling, producing, consuming, and organising culture

On the other hand, it is dedicated to expanding knowledge and awareness of the potential and challenges of cultural welfare practices through data collection and the promotion of an active and participatory knowledge-production process at the local level.

The combination of these two main research strands is intended to support the development of integrated, place-based policies aimed at promoting inclusive territorial growth.

Conceptual and analytical lenses for framing cultural welfare ecosystems

• Cultural participation, linked to the development of cultural capabilities, which are shaped by inequalities in terms of material, cognitive, and social resources.
• A Collaborative Paradigm for a Multi-Stakeholder Approach
• Social innovation, which addresses societal needs by improving social relations and fostering empowerment. Key aspects of social innovation include the role of the territory as a space where new social practices can emerge, participation as a process of knowledge production, and collaboration-based partnerships involving a variety of stakeholders.
• Cultural value, and its relationship with non-economic categories and "Institutional Value," which refers to how organizations behave when interacting with citizens and their territories, as well as how they contribute to local community growth and resilience.
• Reflexivity, Transformative Capacity, and the Generativity of Creative Processes and the Politics of Imagination

Project Methodology

The research project adopts a transformative participatory research approach, in the sense articulated by Moulaert and Van Dyck (2013), and by Reason and Bradbury (2001, 2008), who associate transformative research with social innovation and the co-creation of knowledge together with communities, within a broader perspective of collective empowerment.

This methodology traces its origins to the work of Kurt Lewin, who already in 1946 brought together research, action and social change, challenging the traditional separation between the researcher and the research subjects. It is grounded in the idea that knowledge is collectively constructed and that the research process itself should generate cultural and social transformation among participants. Its defining feature lies in the fact that research does not merely describe objects or the reality under investigation; rather, it produces processes of collective reflection and self-transformation, enabling a shift in the perspectives of both observers and those being observed.

Project Phases

• Background Research:
  Aimed at enriching the understanding of cultural welfare through a review of academic literature and identifying social semantics at the European Union level by analyzing policy documents and reports on the relationship between art/culture and wellbeing.
  
• Mapping Cultural Welfare Projects in Italy:
  Focused on analyzing the attributes and challenges of cultural welfare initiatives in order to provide a comprehensive and in-depth overview of the Italian context.
  
• Community-Based Knowledge Creation in Local Territories:
  Conducted within the Emilia-Romagna and Marche regions through action research in collaboration with local stakeholders. This phase aims to foster shared learning and knowledge exchange about developing cultural welfare ecosystems and inclusive monitoring tools.
  
• National and International Dissemination:
  Promoting the Italian debate on cultural welfare on a broader scale throughout the project’s duration.