Culture and the Future Sustainability of Well-being in Israeli Society
This document summarizes the capital approach to sustainable well-being in the domain of culture. It provides an overview of the components of cultural capital discussed in the scientific literature, with an emphasis on cultural participation, as this is the single most important indicator whose links to well-being have been evaluated. The document provides an initial mapping of the critical components of cultural capital specific to the Israeli context, building on previous work conducted in other countries and on social science theory in this area. It presents the theoretical approach to the definition of these components and the international experience of using it for measuring sustainable well-being. The emphasis on cultural participation as one possible operationalization of cultural capital has three motivations. First, research points to a certain set of cultural participation indicators as representing cultural skills that are legitimate and desirable in society. Second, this set of cultural participation indicators has been shown to be associated with returns in the educational system and the labor market. Third, this set has been investigated in relation to indicators of psychological and physical well-being.