Project facts

Duration: 2020-02-01 - 2024-01-31
Project coordinator: University of Barcelona
Project consortium: University of Barcelona, Eötvös Loránd Tudomanyegyetem, University of Coimbra-Centre for Social Studies, University of Bologna, Telemark Research Institute, National Centre for Scientific Research CNRS, University of Porto, Goldsmiths, University of London, Promoter Srl
Funding bodies: EU H2020
Subject areas: Community involvement, Economic value, Heritage Management, Heritage values - Identity, Policies, Sustainability, Sustainable development
Contact: dissemination-uncharted@promoter.it
Budget: €2.999.716,25
Website: https://uncharted-culture.eu/

Presentation

UNCHARTED is a four years project which responds to the H2020 “Transformations” call: The societal value of culture and the impact of cultural policies in Europe.

The project pretends, on one hand, to identify and contextualize the emergence and conformation of the values of culture in Europe from an interdisciplinary and pluralistic perspective, on the other hand,  to provide analytical and methodological tools to understand, measure and analyse the value of culture in Europe from a pluralistic sense.

UNCHARTED distinguishes three main areas and three types of fundamental actors in the value dynamics of culture:

  • the field of cultural participation, in which citizenship is the protagonist
  • the field of cultural production and heritage, where the professionals of creation and preservation take the initiative
  • the field of cultural administration, where the experts and politicians decide

The work is carried out through a research and analysis process, distributed in complementary work areas:

  • Work Package 1: Understanding the Societal Value of Culture
  • Work package 2: Identifying The Emergence of Values of Culture
  • Work package 3: Measuring and Imagining the Plurality of Values of Culture
  • Work package 4: Analyzing Political Intervention and Impact
  • Work package 5: Experimental Demonstrations

A showcase of UNCHARTED is implemented on the digitalmeetsculture.net online magazine, and kept updated with news and articles

Impacts & Results

From a European perspective culture has a very strong economic impact as it generates a high volume of employment, but it is also a powerful resource for fighting the main threats that undermine the peaceful coexistence in Europe. In this light, it is worth that cultural policies take into account the strategic plural values of culture.

These are currently fundamental challenges for Europe and the main areas in which the project plans to leave its contribution by developing new tools and guidelines for understanding, calibrating and managing the plurality of values of culture.

UNCHARTED will deliver two important results:

  • the elaboration of a general, complete and integrated vision of the societal value of culture
  • a roadmap for cultural policy actions favorable to acknowledge the plurality of cultural values

These will include recommendations for the improvement of cultural information systems and the evaluation of mechanisms and dynamics that operate in the institutional field of culture.

For this purpose, UNCHARTED intends to develop a set of instruments that aim to provide continuation and collaboration on the investigation and the research about understanding, capturing and fostering the societal value of culture:

  • policy briefs and recommendations for the use of policy makers
  • guidelines and examples of good practices for communities engaged with production, management and use of culture
  • case studies, scientific papers and a wide range of practical resources made available to researchers
  • the UNCHARTED book