Health and social impact of culture

Abstract This master`s thesis concentrates on health and social impacts of culture. Main concepts of the thesis are: health, culture and social capital. Purpose of the research is to find out which are the health impacts of culture, how to measure those impacts and how could the methods used in health-measurement be improved. There will be six researches analyzed in this master`s thesis. Methodology used is content analysis of the secondary data, choosen among many scientific researches on the area of health and social impacts of arts and culture. Searching was carried through in databases of the Library of the University of Jyväskylä and in database scholar google. The main focus was set into researches, which are innovative and expanding the area of research about health and social impacts of culture. On the basis of six researches examined in current master`s thesis one may argue, that cultural participation contributes to the health on three main level: on personal, social and political level. Main conclusions of current master`s thesis indicate to the relevancy of multidiciplinary research on the field of social impacts. Impacts on individual level proved, that health-impacts of arts and culture are measurable and could be considered as the source of information about individual`s health. Impacts on society level are influenced by arts impacts on individual level and indicate to the connections between social capital, health and cultural participation. Impacts on political level indicate to the need of further research through which the concept of health could be elaborated through more specific information about life quality and well-being. Considering different areas of interests on on the field of public policies of each abovementioned area, the cultural policy appears to be one of the main methods for society planning. Providing the understanding of deep essence of human well-being on personal and social level may wider access to cultural participation provide solutions for actual problems in society