Culture, well-being, and Rotterdam South

Cultural participation and subjective well-being (SWB), separately and together, are both intensively researched concepts. Scholars seem to agree on the positive influence cultural participation can have on an individual’s SWB. These concepts together, however, have not been studied in the setting of an urban, deprived area which is one of the reasons why this thesis is important and fills a gap in the literature. Additionally, research on these two concepts together could aid in policymaking. This had led to the following research question: How do young adults in urban, deprived areas participate in cultural activities and how do they perceive the effect of these activities on their SWB? Rotterdam South is the deprived, urban area that is used as a case study in this research. Rotterdam South is an interesting case study for this research as it is characterized by various problems of huge magnitude which can be considered unusual in the Netherlands. A broad definition of both culture and cultural participation is used and includes daily activities. SWB consists of life satisfaction, pleasant affect and unpleasant for this thesis and is centered around the perceived emotions, feelings, and moods a young adult perceives to experience. A qualitive research method, interviews, was used to try to answer this research question. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with young adults who are living or have lived in Rotterdam South. The collected data was analyzed by using zerocoding and subsequently, thematic analysis. This resulted in an inventory of cultural activities that young adults in Rotterdam South participate in. It also led to an overview of how these young adults engage in cultural activities. Furthermore, it was shown that young adults have several, conflicting views of culture in mind. Moreover, young adults perceived to experience emotions, feelings, and moods associated with pleasant affect due to cultural participation. Social interaction plays an important part as it is a motivation for young adults to engage in cultural participation as well as a reason for them to experience positive emotions and moods. Additionally, young adults perceived to experience some emotions, feelings, and moods related to unpleasant affect. Young adults perceive work-related cultural activities and cultural activities that they feel obligated to engage in as possible causes of their negative emotions and feelings such as nervousness and annoyance. Finally, young adults perceive for cultural participation to have a positive effect on their life satisfaction. Cultural participation provides them with the possibility to gain knowledge and new perspectives, develop their skills as well as possibly improve their mental health.