Transcript Procida Conference 06/09/2009 - The University of Nottingham

Cultural capital and social capital:
cultural economics perspective
David Throsby
Professor of Economics
Macquarie University, Sydney
International Summer School: Valuing Cultural Diversity in Cities: Challenges to Cultural Economics
Island of Procida, Italy, 6 September 2009
1
Types of capital in economics
• physical capital: buildings, equipment, machinery
• human capital: people’s skills, talents, intellectual ability
• natural capital: renewable and non-renewable resources
• cultural capital: tangible and intangible cultural assets
2
Stock of assets
Cultural
capital
Heritage buildings, sites
Art works and artefacts
Music and literature
Inherited traditions
Flow of services
Community participation
Consumption of the arts
Heritage tourism
3
Natural Capital
Cultural Capital
Inherited from past
Created by Nature
Impose a duty of care
Inherited from past
Created by humans
Impose a duty of care
Natural ecosystems
Cultural ecosystems
The real economy
4
Cost-benefit analysis of cultural projects
•
•
•
•
identify capital costs
estimate time-stream of benefits and costs
include non-market values
calculate benefit-cost ratio, net present value
(NPV) and/or internal rate of return (IRR)
• consider similar assessment of cultural value
• is there a trade-off between economic and
cultural value generated by the project?
5
UN World Commission on Environment and Development
(WCED, 1987)
“The Brundtland Commission”
Economic
development
Preserving
natural capital
Sustainable
development
Human
development
Maintaining
ecosystems
6
Sustainability principles:
1. Provision of material and non-material
wellbeing
2. Intergenerational equity
3. Intragenerational equity
4. Maintenance of diversity
5. Interdependence
7
Material wellbeing
• tangible benefits from rising real incomes
Non-material wellbeing
• intangible benefits or “quality of life”
8
Intergenerational equity
An efficiency
issue
Efficient intertemporal
allocation of resources
A moral or
ethical issue
Ethical responsibility to
have concern for future
generations
9
Intragenerational equity
• fairness in treatment of present generation
• non-discrimination
• equity in access to cultural participation
• observance of fundamental human rights
10
Social capital
• relationships between and within social
networks
• cooperation, reciprocity, trust
• social interaction as a resource for the social
good
• social norms or values (overlaps with
intangible cultural capital)
11
Relationships with cultural economics
• arts and culture in urban development
• creative sector and economic growth
• culture in development
12