Although sustainability it is not a newly developed topic, as a key-factor that contributes to economic, social, cultural and environmental development, the discussions about sustainable growth in the cultural sector have entered the Italian political agenda only in recent years. The Covid 19 pandemic has been a catalyst of transformation in various fields, including the cultural system and the creative industry, directing the attention of public and private stakeholders to the different dimensions of sustainability.
Since 2015, the global community through a political agreement between different actors, to represent their values, priorities and objectives, has chosen the so-called Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations. The United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC), which has set up a shared set of statistical information to monitor the progress of individual countries towards the SDGs, entrusted Istat (the Italian National Institute of Statistics), with the task of coordinating the production of indicators for measuring sustainable development in the country and monitoring its objectives. Periodically, it presents an update and an extension of breakdowns of the set of statistical measures for monitoring the SDGs[1].
In particular, The Bes – Benessere equo e sostenibile project[2] was launched in 2010 with the aim of evaluating the progress of society not only from an economic, but also from a social and environmental point of view. To this end, the traditional economic indicators (GDP, first of all) have been integrated with measures of the quality of people’s life and of the environment[3]. Among the Bes indicators, the presence of the domain “Landscape and Cultural Heritage” is motivated by the outstanding relevance of such themes in the Italian context[4]. As regards the cultural sector, the indicators connected to this domain include current expenditure of Municipalities for the management of cultural heritage (museums, libraries, art galleries) in euro per capita; density and importance of museum heritage (number of permanent exhibition facilities per 100 sq.km, such as museums, archaeological sites and monuments open to public)[5]. On the other hand, the domain “Innovation, research and creativity” is considered as an indirect determinant of well-being and the base of social and economic progress. In the identification of suitable dimensions and the related indicators, an effort was done in estimating a creativity indicator, using as a proxy the percentage of employment working in cultural and creative activities.
As far as the creative economy is concerned, as described below in the Report (see chapter 3.5), it is widely agreed non only that it is highly transformative in terms of income generation, job creation and export earnings, but it also empowers people to take ownership of their own development, and stimulates the innovation and creativity, which can drive inclusive and sustainable growth.
On the cultural organizations front, the pandemic has launched a new challenge for Italian institutes, which through sustainability can best interpret their public utility function. In particular, some museums, through innovative projects and management approaches, are contributing to increasing attention to the issue of sustainability, both by implementing good organization practices, and by disseminating a culture of sustainability towards their audiences and stakeholders. Among the best practices, Museintegrati is a research project started in 2021 and coordinated by the MUSE (Museo delle Scienze di Trento), ICOM Italia (International Council of Museums), and ANMS (National Association of Scientific Museums), which aims to implementing in the museum environment the national strategy for sustainable local development and urban agendas[6].
[1] Istat publishes an annual Report on SDGs: https://www.istat.it/en/archivio/sdgs+report
[2] https://www.istat.it/en/well-being-and-sustainability/the-measurement-of-well-being
[3] https://www.istat.it/it/files/2018/04/12-domains-scientific-commission.pdf
[4] In the representation of the domain both objective and subjective aspects were considered. The first through indicators referring to the consistency, status, evolutionary trends of Landscape and Cultural heritage and of the related policies of protection and enhancement (based on existing data sources, and often through the integration of different sources); the latter through indicators of perception (which can be sourced only by direct surveys).
[5] Values weighted by the number of visitors.
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