MASTER THESIS CULTURAL ECONOMICS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP - DIVERSITY IN THE CULTURAL SECTOR OF ROTTERDAM

The aim of this thesis is to find out how cultural policy affects the cultural organizations in regards to their efforts placed on reaching more diverse audiences. The main research question leading this research is: To what extent have cultural organizations strived to increase the diversity of their audiences following a change in policy? In order to answer this question this research focusses on four subsidized organizations in Rotterdam. This choice was made because diversity has become one of the leading policy objectives from 2017 onwards, and because Rotterdam has the most diverse population of The Netherlands. The nature of the research is qualitative and combines content analysis of policy and annual reports with semi-structured interviews with employees of the four organizations. The results of the research show that all organizations have adopted their own strategies to increase the diversity of their audiences. Programming considerations are believed to be most important, but specific marketing strategies directly targeting communities has also proven to be beneficiary. Other important strategies are increasing the (perceived) accessibility of the organization, and cooperation with other (cultural) institutions and communities throughout the city which will lead to audience exchange and therefore to more diverse audiences. The results all showed that societal and intrinsic pressure to diversify audiences are stronger influencers than changing policy. All organizations have implemented changes following the shift in policy but the overall trajectory to increase diversity often dates further back. However, the possibilities for this change in policy to raise awareness throughout the cultural sector was also acknowledged.