Launch of MESOC Delphi consultation process with international experts
The University of Barcelona has launched this week a three-step Delphi consultation process within the framework of the MESOC project, that will ask international experts to provide their insights on the topic of social dimension of cultural projects and policies. The Delphi method is a qualitative technique used to arrive at a group opinion by surveying a panel of experts, who respond to several rounds of questionnaires. The responses are aggregated and shared with the group after each round, and the ultimate result is meant to be a consensus of what the group thinks about a specific topic.
The purpose of this exercise is to validate the results of the previous MESOC activities and to provide direction for the activities to follow, based on large consensual feedback. Indeed, the contents of the three questionnaires are the results of the previous research activities and have been nurtured by a twofold approach: a “top-down” approach, based on expert knowledge and extensive literature analysis on the topic; and a “bottom-up” approach, grounded on the experiences collected in the City Pilots, that provide concrete evidence from cultural projects and policies in different cities around Europe. In order to ensure the quality and coherence of the exercise, the contents have passed an internal revision process with the consortium members and an external revision process with the External Advisory Board members.
Regarding the typologies of participants, the selected invited experts are representative of four groups that play an important role in the researched field:
- Academics and consultants;
- Public administration and policymakers;
- Private foundations supporting cultural projects aiming at social impact;
- Directors / managers of cultural projects.
The first questionnaire of this three-step consultation is aimed at exploring the typologies of social impacts, the transformative effects of cultural experiences by functions and typologies of cultural projects, the elements of local context that affect the impact generation process, and at sharing a first set of conceptual reflections on the topic. The results of this first questionnaire will be validated in the second survey, which will be launched in September 2021 and will go also more in-depth in the topics of social impact evaluation and typologies of variables to detect transformational changes in cultural projects and policies. Finally, the results of this second survey will be corroborated in the third and final questionnaire, foreseen in November 2021. At the end of this Delphi exercise, a final workshop will be organised in February 2022, to share internally the main findings that emerged from the consultation process. The conclusive results will be officially presented during the MESOC Final Conference in October 2022.
Figure 1. MESOC Delphi consultation process. Elaborated by the UB research team of the MESOC project
