The (real) weight of culture

The fact that culture generates 3.2% of jobs and represents 2.1% of the Balearic economy may surprise some. For some, it's far more than they imagined in a region known for its reliance on tourism. For others, the percentage is disappointing compared to the vibrant cultural scene across the islands. For the former, these figures offer a glimmer of hope. For the latter, they merely confirm the precariousness of a sector that survives more on passion than on anything resembling sustainability.

Anyone who follows the Balearic Islands' cultural life even slightly knows there's something happening around the clock. Book presentations, conferences, film screenings, theater performances, dance shows, concerts, festivals, bustling bookstores, reading clubs, exhibitions, galleries, museums, small but persistent publishers, cultural institutions constantly programming events, open monuments, and much more. The offerings could certainly be better, but proportionally to the size of the islands, they're considerable. And yet, this incessant activity isn't reflected in the economic impact it should have.

The reason is well-known: a lack of professionalization and widespread job insecurity. Very few book presentations actually pay the presenter, to give a clear example. Many people work in different areas of culture, dedicating their time and expertise, but all of this goes unrecorded. It doesn't appear in employment figures or the GDP, anywhere. It's invisible work that often costs money to those who do it, even though it sustains a good part of what we call the 'cultural industry'.

This leads us to another problem: the lack of complete and reliable data is glaring. Current statistics don't capture the full scope of the sector, nor are they well-collected. Actual employment is much higher than reports indicate. And without a reliable snapshot, it's impossible to make a rigorous diagnosis, let alone a plan to remedy the situation, or even to begin implementing one.

There's still a long way to go. But if anyone here thinks the cultural industry is gaining considerable weight, they should be told that it could weigh much more if it were given proper consideration, with decent working conditions and adequate, or at least sufficient, economic and technical resources. Everything possible would also be done to increase its weight if all it generates were truly valued—not only in terms of GDP, but above all as a social, educational, and identity-forming force.

Only by increasing its importance and resources can we properly speak of the true weight of culture. Because the cultural industry is not the same as culture itself: that which explains us, connects us, and, even amidst precariousness, continues to sustain our way of seeing the world.