A Retrospective View on the Union’s Cultural Policy: The Commission’s Objectives in Distributing Project Funds across Europe’s Creative Industries

Research on the EU’s cultural policy follows demarcated theoretical and empirical approaches: Theoretical debates are primarily attached to public opinion, ideational dissemination or technical enforcement. The empirics follow predominantly qualitative designs of isolated cases or capture broad trends largely without rigorous methodological assessment. This paper supplements existing literature on the Commission’s objectives with cultural policy by developing a concept for empirical long-term studies, which offers the capability to analyse specific events in depth at the same time. The technically assisted text analysis of 575 calls for proposals published under the culture and media frameworks since 1991 indicates major shifts in the objectives of the Commission over time. The findings provide empirical complements to preceding qualitative fragments of assessment and therefore allow for valid conclusions to broader overarching trends in the cultural field. This novel opportunity to analyse extensive datasets provides an invitation for future comparisons with other areas of funding.