How culture is financed in Worlds Cities: A comparative analysis of public funding, private giving and new funding models in 15 cities from Los Angeles to Shanghai

This is a brief review of recent developments in funding culture in world cities. This review is based on findings of the World Cities Culture Finance Report (WCCF), published by BOP Consulting in 2017, which compared and contrasted the financing of culture in 16 global cities. Based on WCCF data, this review for JOCIS, first and foremost, defines city culture and its revenue streams, secondly, provides statistics and figures on the financing of culture, and thirdly, elaborates on how these findings can be used for further research into the economics of culture and urban sustainability. Funding for culture is unquestionably well-reasoned, but why does it matter how things are going in cities? Two-thirds of the world population will live in cities by 2030 (AP, 2016). Governments all over the globe face increasingly complex challenges brought by rapid urbanisation, ranging from environmental issues to social inequality. Culture is believed to be able to ease some of those tensions and creating striving urban centres as places of collaboration between various social groups. In fact, “many of the great policy issues of our age [ ] are [now] being led at a city, rather than national, level” (WCCF, 2017a). Before one moves on to question how to make city culture more robust in solving some of those tensions, it’s important to understand what is a city culture, which kinds of funding are already present, and how do they differ depending on various geographies