“Big surveys” caught between policies, sociology, and statistics: Measuring cultural participation in national territories

In many countries, “big surveys” on cultural participation are now part of the landscape. Yet they are rarely considered as subjects of study. Necessary for cultural policies, eagerly awaited by the media, and readily used by the social sciences, the national surveys carried out by governments on the cultural activities of their populations are a blind spot in the analysis. This article proposes taking a closer look at the measurement of cultural participation in different national territories. Its corpus comprises around 40 European countries, 15 of which have such a “big survey.” The analysis describes the origins of these surveys in the 1960s, in the context of the emergence of cultural democratization policies. It identifies the unexpected variety of statistical approaches used in different countries to capture attendance at cultural institutions, amateur activities, and media practices, often indirectly, avoiding a single, costly survey on the subject of cultural participation. Among the 15 “big surveys” identified, the article examines the diversity of institutional frameworks and methodologies used, highlighting their impact on the results, their representativeness, and their range. It investigates their denominations and, above all, the scope and type of activities covered by these surveys, which vary considerably from one country to another. Ultimately, these “big surveys” reveal how participation in the arts and culture is apprehended in various national territories and, consequently, how their measurement is conditioned by cultural policy paradigms—their symbolic territories—and, finally, about what they do not measure. In conclusion, the text considers the pertinence and the future of these “big surveys.”