1. NCN module on cultural participation:
EUROSTAT –Unit F3 Living conditions and social protection statistics
NCN module on cultural participation:
a proposal
Two main long term regular households/individuals surveys have been put in place at Community level, for specific purposes linked to the Union’s policies: LFS focusing on employment and SILC focusing on income and living conditions. Both surveys offer an annual possibility of specific ad-hoc modules, allowing for a limited number of additional variables to be collected, providing these variables are related to the main purpose of the surveys.
Other general population data collections either have been, are being or will be established with greater or lesser degrees of harmonisation at EU level, like the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) household survey, the Adult Education Survey (AES), the Household Budget Survey (HBS), the Time Use Survey (TUS) and the Health Interview Survey (EHIS). Two of these data collections (HBS and TUS) have already existed for some time, but most of them have been recently implemented (ICT) or they are still in a development phase (AES, EHIS).
At the same time, requests for new data collections are emerging and it is likely that they will increase in the future. There is consequently a need to look at possibilities to rationalise the data collection system and at the same time to create a flexible tool to quickly answer to new policy demands or existing policy demands which are not yet fulfilled. This is the reason why Eurostat has been, since 2005, working on the development of a new instrument, the EHS (European Household Survey or European System of Social Statistical Survey Modules). The system should have flexibility as a key characteristic aiming at improving timeliness and responsiveness.
Several Commission DGs (in particular DG EMPL, SANCO, EAC, JLS) have already expressed a strong interest for this project. 1

2. The proposed structure for EHS

3. Basic characteristics of a short NCN module
Indidividual interviews on population aged 15+ and living in private households
Mean duration: 15’
Sample size: 135,000 interviews
Inclusion of the following core variables:
Age
Sex
Country of birth
Country of citizenship at the date of data collection
Country of residence
Region of residence
Degree of urbanisation
Legal and de facto marital status
Household composition
Self-declared labour status
Status and occupation in employment
Economic sector in employment
Highest level of education completed
Net monthly income of the household
Fieldwork period: April/June
Availability of results: at the end of the year of data collection

4. Theme for a NCN module on culture
Participation in cultural activities (main theme)
Barriers and drivers
Intercultural dialogue

5. Main sources of information
“Guidelines for Measuring Cultural Participation”, Leadership Group on Cultural Statistics, UNESCO, December 2006;
“European Cultural Values”, Special Eurobarometer 278, September 2007;
“Europeans’ Participation in Cultural Activities”, Eurobarometer 56, 2001;
“Europeans and languages”, Eurobarometer 54 Special, 2001;
“Citizens and their leisure time”, Statistical Survey Multi-Purpose on Family, ISTAT, 2006;
"The diversity of cultural participation", Francie Ostrower, November 2005;
“Manual for measuring Cultural Participation”, Agilis, March 2006

6. Additional « core » variables to be included
Questions closely related to the topic of cultural participation:
Education level of parents
Country of birth of parents
Mother tongue (of the respondent)
Mother tongue of parents
Languages known (to the respondent), and level of knowledge of each language
Religious habits  a very sensitive topics:
Religious behaviours but also attitudes towards different religious behaviours and habits
 Feedback from WG, TF and DG EAC?

7. Participation in cultural activities: the proposed classification

8. A first proposal on scope of information in module on culture
Multimedia are not in the classification (questions about purpose of use are already preset in the ICT quesitonnaire)

9. Barriers and drivers
Barriers: factors which prevent people from participating in cultural activities and/or visiting cultural sites
Drivers: means by which people could be encouraged to participate more, and more actively, in cultural activities or to visit cultural sites.
Work ongoing on this issue (but risk of too long/too complex interview duration)
Question to the WG: drop questions on this issue?

10. Inter-cultural dialogue
Policy context:
Follow-up of the European year of the intercultural dialogue (2008)
Migrations (including within EU countries) and enlargement
Aspects to be taken into account for this section:
The most commons forms of inter-cultural exchanges.
Existence and intensity of inter-cultural exchanges.
When and where inter-cultural exchanges take place (family, work environment, school, etc.).
Individuals’ reaction to inter-cultural exchanges (positive/ negative).
The role of the family in promoting inter-cultural exchanges.
Role of other institutions or collective activities (sport, religion, ...) in inter-cultural exchanges.

11. Proposed list of variables