A fRAmework of the DetermInants of Arts aNd Cultural Engagement (RADIANCE): integrated insights from ecological, behavioural and complex adaptive systems theories

Abstract

Background Arts and cultural engagement (ACEng) is ubiquitous across every human culture since palaeolithic times, but in contemporary society, ACEng is unevenly distributed, demographically, socio-economically, geographically and politically. But what are the “determinants” of ACEng (i.e., the facilitators or barriers to people’s engagement) and how can they be optimised? Despite a large body of theory and evidence on individual determinants, this work has largely occurred in disciplinary silos, which has led variously to contrasting discourses and approaches, criticism, and inconsistent findings. What we lack is a rigorous comprehensive understanding of these determinants (both those already theorised and those that have been little recognised as determinants to date) that goes beyond descriptively showing inequalities, instead explaining why these inequalities exist and how they can be overcome. This paper explores the currently recognised determinants of ACEng, and existing theoretical approaches to these determinants. Methods Drawing on the theoretical bases of ecological systems theory, ecosocial theory and complex adaptive systems science, we conducted a review and iterative theorising process. Results We propose a new theoretical framework of the determinants of arts and cultural engagement (RADIANCE) developed through cross-disciplinary literature reviewing, domain mapping, and consensus building. Conclusions Overall, we identified 35 different factors that can act as determinants of ACEng across micro, meso, exo, macro and chrono levels. We broadly categorised these as social (i.e. a primary feature being the interaction of people), tangible (i.e. a primary feature involving physical assets or resources or the production of physical assets), and intangible (i.e. constructs that do not have a primary physical basis but instead have a virtual or imaginary basis). The relevance and implications of this framework for broader research, policy, and practice and case studies of it in use are presented.