Cultural Participation, Relational Goods and Individual Subjective Well-Being: Some Empirical Evidence

Giorgio Tavano Blessi (), Enzo Grossi (), Pier Luigi Sacco (), Giovanni Pieretti () and Guido Ferilli
Additional contact information
Giorgio Tavano Blessi: Department of Sociology and Economic Law, Bologna University, Via San Giacomo 3, 40126, Bologna, ITALY
Enzo Grossi: Bracco Foundation, Via Cino del Duca, 8, 20122 Milano - ITALY
Pier Luigi Sacco: Faculty of Arts, Markets, and Heritage, IULM University, via Carlo Bo, 1, 20143 Milan, ITALY
Giovanni Pieretti: Department of Sociology and Economic Law, Bologna University, Via San Giacomo 3, 40126, Bologna, ITALY

Review of Economics & Finance, 2014, vol. 4, 33-46

Abstract: This paper focuses on the role of cultural participation as a source of individual subjective well-being in terms of the sociability orientation of different cultural activities. In previous works, we have found a strong association between subjective well-being and cultural participation. Here, we want to test to what extent such as association can be ascribed to the fact that cultural participation allows individuals to engage in non instrumental forms of social interaction, which are conducive to genuine forms of interpersonal relations. The test is conducted through two different evidence bases: on a survey covering Italian population and focused on the relation between culture and well-being; and an online survey of experts, ranking the 14 culturally related activities of the previous survey in terms of their sociability orientation. Our findings show that cultural participation tends to be oriented preferentially toward relatively sociable activities, thereby contributing to the production of relational goods and social capital.

Keywords: Cultural participation; Relational goods; Individual subjective well-being; Psychological health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A12 D11 I31 Z10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.bapress.ca/ref/ref-article/1923-7529-2014-03-33-14.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bap:journl:140303

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
17 Alton Towers Circle, Unit 101 Toronto, ON, M1V3L8, Canada

Access Statistics for this article

Review of Economics & Finance is currently edited by H. Carlson

More articles in Review of Economics & Finance from Better Advances Press, Canada 17 Alton Towers Circle, Unit 101 Toronto, ON, M1V3L8, Canada.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Carlson ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).