„Skrzecząca rzeczywistość” – (niewielka) konsumpcja kulturalna w świetle obiektywnych danych i subiektywnych uzasadnień

Representative surveys, carried out by the Central Statistical Office reveal how low is in Poland the scale of participation in culture: expenses connected with culture represent about 3% of household expenditure, and 1/3 of this amount is spent on television. Almost half of householders didn’t buy a book in year, 60% of Poles didn’t go to the cinema and 90% didn’t go to the theatre. In the same time, participation in culture is shown as a condition for social and economic development. The gap between absence of participation in culture and promoting culture is depicted in more detail in terms of statistics illustrating the scale of absence and in diagnosis of barriers. But this analysis leads to next questions – on the one hand about the apparent shallowness of these barriers, on the other – about the need for different way of task posed questions, new methods which break with the traditional questions about the museum visit or buying newspapers. As the culture changes, we should change tools of researching culture. Perhaps the picture will continue to indicate the dominance of absence, but maybe will penetrate beyond the enigmatic „I did not feel the need” to participate.