8.1 General context
On this page
On this page
Main trends in young people's creativity and cultural participation
In Poland, research aimed specifically at the culture and creativity of young people is not regularly carried out. However, participation in culture is examined and some of the available reports indicate significant differences between the intensity and the forms of participation amongst the different age groups. From the outset, however, attention should be paid to the significant definitional discrepancies, which have a major influence on the assessment of this phenomenon. It regards the defining of the concept of participation in culture, which is sometimes described in a traditional, narrow way, as doing something with cultural resources - this approach is usually used in public statistics on culture and it simply means the use (consumption) of cultural resources created by various cultural institutions, possibly also the amateur creation of such resources.
We are therefore dealing with an understanding of participation, which is almost exclusively seen through the prism of the individual's relationship with institutional culture. Subsequent approaches can be considered as progressively wider; some of them include not only reception, but also the creation and interpretation of various contents, while another, even broader approach, defines cultural participation as “individual participation in cultural phenomena - absorption of its contents, use of its resources, subjecting oneself to the existing norms and models, but also the creation of new cultural content and the reproduction and processing of existing ones.”
A separate set of approaches results from a very broad anthropological definition of culture and can be characterised as a specific way of human living; as everything which makes a person live differently than other creatures, as a unique way of adapting to reality, a basic tool that provides people with an advantage over the animal and natural world. In this broad approach, the social context is also important - the fact that we live among the creations of culture which significantly mediate interpersonal relations, because culture is a sphere surrounding human beings on all sides and humans are inherently "immersed" in it. It is also referred to as "being in culture”, meaning having internal dispositions to understand cultural patterns and the human behaviours resulting from it, as well as an understanding of the products of culture, along with the ability to produce and process them, which results from acquired cultural competence. The characteristic of this type of understanding of participation in culture is its broad scope: contents, goods, norms, models and values of culture and all possible manifestations of culture, but paradoxically, the universality of this state means that the fact of "being in culture" is neither felt nor realised in everyday life. Another issue is the relation of cultural participation with common norms, models and values - participation is both the reproduction and processing of existing ones, as well as the creation of new ones. This broad social and moral context has a special meaning in the life of the young generation - it indicates that participation in culture, its frequency and daily practice has a significant importance in further life of young people, not only with regards to the narrowly understood participation in culture, but also relating to attitudes in later life, existence in society and professed values.
Main concepts
Participation in culture may have, first and foremost, an institutional and reception-oriented dimension, as well as reference to broad spheres of life, include “non-mass and non-institutional phenomena into the analysis of contemporary culture”, and define them as “a process of including and excluding individuals and groups, objects, ideas, behaviours and their configuration into specific situations (both everyday situations and special occasions) regulated culturally (...) [which] is possible due to human behaviour - therefore always, as per definition, having an active character.”
We are, therefore, dealing either with the participation in culture treated as receiving (reception), learning, using and consuming “cultural goods” produced by others (this is in line with the understanding of culture visible in the most important document in this respect, i.e. the Act on Organising and Running Cultural Activity (Ustawa o organizowaniu i prowadzeniu działalności kulturalnej) or with a complex dynamic set of cultural practices that can occur in various places, such as locations described by Barbara Fatyga as a “substitute (substitutive) cultural infrastructure, including objects and places in public spaces that were not originally conceived as performing (narrowly understood) cultural functions. They are particularly important in places where the existing and official cultural infrastructure does not meet integration needs and, often, the ludic needs of specific social groups or excludes them from the official participation. Examples of substitute infrastructure understood in this way include: a spot outside a local shop, stairwells and alleyways, obfuscated park benches, bus stops or staircases occupied by slackers or/and young people, uninhabited buildings and ruins, allotment gardens, nooks and crannies of stations and canals occupied by homeless people, et cetera”. There is no specialised formal institution necessary to practice such understood participation in culture. Instead, in the typology of cultural activity and participation in contemporary cultural life, developed by Tomasz Szlendak, the "social circles" category manifests. These are “"hordes" of school or university friends. Young people going out together, visiting the gallery to see an exhibition before heading to the pub, or ending up in a cluster of people at an electronic music festival. People, especially young people, leave their homes because they want to meet their friends. This is their main need and motivation. Thus, they independently organise themselves into groups of people for whom collaboration and sociability are more important than artistic experiences.”
The Central Statistical Office conducts a cyclic survey (with the frequency of once every 5 years) entitled: Participation in Culture. The last one available is from 2019. They show that among young people - individuals aged between 25-34 and 15-24 years - represent the high percentage of people who consider culture as important (81.4 and 81.9 percent respectively), in the 15-24 age group was the highest percentage of people who read at least one book - 76.3 percent (in cities - 81.6 percent, in rural areas - 69.2 percent, however, it should be mentioned that often those are school or student textbooks and, as such, obligatory readings). Participation in culture also means the use of mass media: 65 percent of people aged 15 or over were reading newspapers, while in the youngest age group (15-24 years) - 48.3 percent (...) the most people listening to the radio were in the group of 25-34 years old - 89.8 percent, but on the other hand, the least radio listeners were recorded in the youngest group (15-24 years). When it comes to watching movies, young people relatively often go to the cinema (92.4 percent of the 15-24 years old group) but at the same time, the lowest percentage of viewers of the feature films (86.4 percent) was recorded in this group.
That is all regarding the participation of young people in the institutional culture studied within the framework of public statistics. However, with regards to the preliminary considerations, it should be emphasised that young people for various reasons - material, social, and infrastructural – often cannot find their place in institutional culture. As Tomasz Szlendak writes in the previously mentioned typology we are dealing here with compulsory participation. The typology of cultural activity and participation in contemporary cultural life mentions another category of youth: "the children from the bus". These are“ pupils and pre-schoolers who are brought to cultural institutions to watch plays, exhibitions and educational programmes/events, one of the most faithful and most numerous spectators and clients of Polish cultural institutions, who have no choice – they simply have to participate in artistic events. Without them, cultural institutions in Poland would certainly be empty”.
Newest qualitative research data (from the Culture in the lives of children and youth – Kultura w życiu dzieci i młodzieży) suggest that for the youth “culture (...) has an exceptional character, and in their narratives it is mostly identified with events organized by large institutions, while everyday activities and simple leisure does not belong to the area of culture”. In this perspective, what the youth do on the Internet is not understood as participation in culture. This can be best seen in the following statement by one of teenage research participants: “Publishing a short on TikTok or an Instagram is not culture, because it is mostly irrelevant things. Well, unless it is a historian’s account, for example. But in general social media is the opposite of culture”. Furthermore, it appears that for the youth one of the factors which define what is and what is not culture is the use: seeking simple leisure decreases for them the importance of a cultural event. In this view, even going to the cinema is a social event, and not participation in culture, which can be heard in the words of another teenager: “Going to a cinema is not associated with culture, but when it comes to all those museums and theaters, then obviously. Cinemas are generally so modern. They rarely have anything to do with [culture]. Movies like, I don’t know, newest Marvel, new “Spiderman”, that has little to do with culture, right? And in theaters they show plays. Theaters make you think of culture, of availability, if there is a word like that. But the cinema, not so much. We go to a cinema with friends, to laugh and eat popcorn.”
Meanwhile, quantitative data from the Cultural Activity of the Polish People in 2023 (Aktywność kulturalna Polaków w 2023 roku) report show that leisure and relaxation are key motivating factors for the youth looking to participate in culture. This leads to a question about the degree to which young people, in their understanding, go to a cinema or a culture event, participate in culture, and to what degree they see it as a form of rest, while culture for them is associated with what is usually termed “high culture”. This can be the result of school education which instills such understanding of culture among students. It can also be seen in the approach of adults working with culture among the youth and children, such as under the Very Young Culture 2023 – 2025 project (described further under the section 8.4). Evaluation of the first year of the project (Ewaluacja pierwszego roku wdrażania i realizacji programu Bardzo Młoda Kultura 2023 2025) shows that such adults struggle with the youth’s approach to culture, especially when the project yields agency to said youth: “Particular difficulties were encountered in situations like when the partnership, in cooperation with youth, presented a project for a musical event (a silent disco), but the operator decided that this initiative has “too little participation in culture of the youth”. In effect, the youth was met with two contradictory statements: that they are encouraged to self-determine, but also that their ideas are not sufficient. Such tension is visible throughout the entire Programme. Some operators are aware of it, and of the question whether to allow the Very Young Culture project to be directed by the youth, accepting local initiatives that will please the youth, or whether to put more focus on culture animation and look for more culturally refined solutions”.
Despite that, it is impossible to talk about the participation of young people in culture without appreciating the role of the Internet and modern forms of communication. This is also visible in the previously quoted Central Statistical Office research: the percentage of people using a computer at home every day is the highest (75.1 percent) among the youngest age group – 15-24 years. It is usually used for the entertainment purposes: streaming or downloading movies, music files, playing computer games or downloading games (this type of computer usage was declared by 59.5 percent of people from the 15-24 age group and 42.1 percent of people from the 25-34 age group). Increasing importance given by young people to their presence within the Internet, including in culturally creative spheres, leads to a blurring between the boundaries of those “two worlds”: Online and offline life for young people overlaps (...). There is no single way of thinking about it – for some, it is one world, for others, two different ones. Many think that online activities inspire offline ones, and vice-versa.The greater interest in the digital among young people has been noted in the past. The authors of the diagnosis prepared for the needs of the Social Capital Development Strategy 2020 (Strategia Rozwoju Kapitału Społecznego 2020) were also aware of this. It points out a very significant aspect of the self-awareness of young people, who are convinced (and it is hard to doubt the rightness of this conviction) that they are more modern than the older generation, better at multi-tasking, learn faster and are generally more creative. The diagnosis prepared for the current Strategy for the Development of Human Capital (Cooperation, Culture, Creativity) 2030 (Strategia Rozwoju Kapitału Społecznego (współdziałanie, kultura, kreatywność) 2030) does not refer to this issue at all. At the same time, it should be emphasised that patterns of participation in culture do not depend solely on age, but also on (often strongly correlated) geographical, economic, educational and technological factors.
COVID-19 pandemic has increased the use of paid streaming platforms – in 2021, 20% more Poles have such a subscription compared to the previous year. The market share of streaming platforms in the whole viewing market continues to rise, and at the start of 2024 reached over 8% of the entire market. The consequences of the pandemic are far more wide-reaching among the youth. According to 2021 CBOS research Youth 2021 (Młodzież 2021) done for the National Center for Addiction Prevention (Krajowe Centrum Przeciwdziałania Uzależnieniom), during the pandemic the number of hours that young people aged 18-19 spend on the Internet (5,03 in 2021, compared to 4,31 in 2018 and 3,03 in 2013). Approximately two thirds of young people (62%) are constantly online and receive news in real time. More people watch movies and TV series online as well as play online games. Listening to radio online is consistently highly reported.