{"id":174843,"date":"2025-01-15T16:03:20","date_gmt":"2025-01-15T15:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=174843"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:27:39","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:27:39","slug":"culture-is-measurably-valuable-says-marc-verboord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2025\/01\/15\/culture-is-measurably-valuable-says-marc-verboord\/","title":{"rendered":"Culture is measurably valuable, says Marc Verboord"},"content":{"rendered":"

Through his research, Marc Verboord quantifies the impact of culture. At a conference in Slovenia, he attended a book presentation by V\u00e1clav \u0160t\u0115tka and Sabina Mihelj on their book\u00a0The Illiberal Public Sphere<\/em>. It made him realise how subversive conservative cultural values can be for science, media, and politics.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLeroy Verbeet<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

At the end of last year, Verboord travelled to the Malieveld to protest proposed cuts to higher education. He didn\u2019t bring a protest sign, but he joined in with the chants. \u201cI wanted to make my voice heard. The more people show up, the clearer the message that budget cuts are problematic for the sector.\u201d For now, research proposals continue to move forward, though the looming threat to academia is keenly felt by Verboord and others.<\/p>\n

Quantifying culture<\/h2>

Verboord researches culture and media \u2013 two sectors also under threat from funding cuts. He conducts quantitative research to make culture, which seems intangible, measurable. He is currently concluding a European study examining the impact of culture on well-being.<\/p>\n

Four times a day, people across Europe were asked how they were feeling and whether they had engaged in any cultural activity in the past few hours. Reading books, watching films, listening to music, talking about sports or theatre \u2013 all counted as cultural participation. The results? People who had recently engaged in cultural activities reported feeling better than those who had not. The exceptions were gaming and following the news \u2013 these did not boost happiness. \u201cI hope studies like these are of interest to policymakers when considering budget cuts for culture and science\u201d, says Verboord.<\/p>\n\t

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Reading habits<\/strong><\/p>\n

Books read per year:\u00a040<\/p>\n

Favourite genres:\u00a0Non-fiction, detective novels, literature, and science fiction \u2013 a true bookworm.<\/p>\n

Main motivation:\u00a0“It depends on the book. I read fiction to relax, but other books to learn something. In short, different books for different reasons.”<\/p>\n

Last book read:\u00a0A thriller by Michael Connelly. “Connelly writes excellent crime novels, offering an intriguing portrayal of Los Angeles. It was almost a sociological analysis of how that society operates.”<\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n

Science is (not) politics<\/h2>

Even though culture and science are not priorities for the current government, Verboord has no intention of pursuing an activist agenda with his research. He aims to investigate the effects of certain values, not create policies. For instance, in the same European project \u2013 \u201cyou have to make big promises in grant applications, otherwise you won\u2019t get the funding\u201d \u2013 he found that the more conservative people are, the less trust they have in institutions like politics, media, and science.<\/p>\n

At a conference in Slovenia, Verboord chose from twenty parallel sessions to attend a book presentation by V\u00e1clav \u0160t\u0115tka and Sabina Mihelj, two scholars of Eastern European origin. They presented their book\u00a0The Illiberal Public Sphere<\/em>, about media, culture, and the rise of authoritarianism. In Ljubljana, it became even clearer to Verboord that the impact of conservative values on trust in institutions is already evident in Eastern European countries. \u201cIt\u2019s alarming that in countries like Hungary and Serbia, conservative ideas are becoming increasingly dominant. You can already see how subversive this is. In such countries, social media is considered a more reliable source of information than public broadcasting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Social media as a news source<\/h2>

Another area of Verboord\u2019s research examines how people consume news and the sources they use \u2013 their media repertoire. When teaching a class, he often starts by asking students where they get their information. TikTok is the most common answer. Verboord finds this somewhat surprising: \u201cI\u2019m not a huge social media user myself.\u201d But he also sees that trust in authorities is declining. \u201cWe no longer believe in authority figures, such as a critic from\u00a0a leading newspaper recommending a book. People find what an ordinary reader on Goodreads thinks just as important.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exception proves the rule<\/h2>

Verboord often talks about trends but acknowledges there are always exceptions. He began his career with a PhD on reading education. One of his findings was that parents\u2019 reading habits strongly influence their children\u2019s reading habits as adults. The exception to this rule? Verboord himself. His parents, while taking him to the library, rarely read novels themselves. Verboord was the first in his family to attend university. There, he read the works of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, who argued that taste and preferences are shaped by social class. \u201cYou could say I transcended my class, but at the time I wasn\u2019t really thinking about that. When conducting research, there are always exceptions.\u201d<\/p>\n\t

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Marc Verboord is a professor of Media and Society at the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication. His research lies at the intersection of cultural and media sociology, communication science, and journalism studies. He focuses on the sociological aspects of media consumption, the societal effects of digitalisation and new media, and the relationship between media and trust. Verboord teaches in the International Bachelor in Communication and Media and the master\u2019s programmes in Media Studies and Sociology of Culture, Media and the Arts. Between 2020 and 2023, he served as head of the Media & Communication department at ESHCC.<\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t

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