Cultural surveys and Finnish cultural policy

Abstract

The following thesis revolves around the research question what is the role of cultural surveys in Finnish cultural policy? In order to try to answer this question, elements were taken into consideration involving the relationship between these types of surveys and trends followed in Finnish cultural policy. Among the elements analysed were: the model of cultural policy in Finland and its shifts, the main cultural surveys carry out in Finland, the cultural surveys at a local level using as an example the case of Helsinki, and the adoption of indicators as measurements for effectiveness in public policy.

The research methods used were a combination of a revision of official documents, together with six semi-structured interviews. The information found in documents such as “Effectiveness Indicators to Strengthen the Knowledge Base for Cultural Policy” elaborated by the Ministry of Education and Culture Finland (2011), or the Strategy Programme 20132016 of the city of Helsinki, facilitate the identification of formal discourses, while the data retrieved from the interviewees, -mostly decision makers and actors involved in the cultural field -, served as a complement.

The research data has been analysed and interpreted using theoretical inputs from Foucault and his study of statistical knowledge in governmentality (1980, 2003, 2007), the models of cultural policy proposed by Hillman & McCaugheya (1989) and Mulcahy (1998), evidence-based policy and the new public management paradigm.

From the results of the thesis can be concluded that although there is a connection between cultural surveys and cultural policy, changes in the latter are not in direct causality or in a linear mode with the former. There is a significant trend in Finnish government towards using surveys and statistical data as audit and assessment tools for effectiveness, nonetheless there is not a unified system to collect data in the cultural field, neither at the national level or at the local level.