The Role of Statistics for the Knowledge of the Cultural Transformations

Abstract

The study of the cultural transformations carried on in Italy in the last century has found in the official statistics a valuable tool of knowledge. In Italy, covering a period of about ninety years, the problem of grasping the heuristic, definitional and conceptual dimension of cultural phenomena was well present to the main statistical Institutions, from the beginning. Even today, with the arrival of Information and Communication Technologies, the defining and conceptual problem of what is meant by cultural statistics and their measurement capacity is once again highly relevant.
By a historical analysis of the main cultural official statistics, the main evolution of the cultural consumption and participation in the last ninety years are illustrated using a consistent time series of data, in order to investigate whether and how the advent and the use of new digital communication technologies have influenced the cultural phenomena and trends.
The article, although starting from a specifically point of view of the cultural transformations that took place in our country, raises the question of whether, the modes and contents of cultural participation and consumption have changed compared to the past, as a result of the digital mutation in place, and if a groundbreaking approach with new statistical measurements and investigation techniques are needed to improve the knowledge of these unusual social behaviors.