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Traditional practices may have a considerable effect on survey methods. For example,
‘coming of age’ may happen at different ages in different social and ethnic groups. This may
allow participation in core cultural practices which was not accessible before. Collecting data
on indigenous peoples can be extremely complex, as anthropologists well know. Even the
most basic assumptions, such as family relationships, can be very elusive. In some societies,
people are siblings because they are born in the same place, not because they have the
same parents; while in other societies, local animals may be seen as close relatives but
people in a different village may be seen as a different ‘species’ (Descola, 2006). Equally, the
complex nature of exchange of gifts (Mauss, 1923-1924) may confound the best household
expenditure survey.
It is common for household surveys to collect information about the presence of furniture or
equipment in the home. The UNESCO FCS (UNESCO-UIS, 2009) defines this as a
transversal theme cutting across all domains of culture. For cultural participation surveys,
which find it hard to collect reliable data on traditional intangible practices, data on the
presence of tools and equipment within the household (e.g. for use in ceremonies) may be a
useful proxy. In order to achieve good data on traditional and intangible practices, it is vital
for surveys to have a strong buy-in from local communities, who can for example draw
attention to any taboos about meeting certain people or talking about certain possessions.
2.2.5 Global migration and cultural diversity
In developed countries, ethnically-marked differences in cultural practices are sometimes
used almost as a synonym for cultural diversity, which has been defined by UNESCO as “the
manifold ways in which the cultures of groups and societies find expression” (UNESCO,
2001). Definitions of cultural diversity vary at national level, and even within the same
country, depending on the understanding and interests of different institutions and
organizations. In the countries having the longest tradition of cultural participation studies
(e.g. the United States and countries in the EU), the concept is often related to the ethnicallymixed
composition of society and global migration flows for which these same countries are
major destinations. Ethnic labels are often a means of self or group identity and may bear
little resemblance to any objective reality. Some countries, such as Brazil and France, have
decided that for them the idea of ethnicity is inappropriate and very subjective. Recent
migrants can always be identified through a question on country of birth.
The prominence given to the concept of cultural diversity has increased since the 1990s
(Laaksonen, 2010), and in parallel, its role in the field of cultural statistics has evolved.
Morrone (UNESCO-UIS, 2006) notes that during the post-war period in the “first world” the
relationship with different cultures meant relationships between different countries, “that, both
from political and socio-cultural points of view, were conceptualised as units, regardless of
their inner diversity”. Since then, social transformations at global level, especially
international migration flows, have shifted the concept “from tolerance between societies to
the tolerance within them (even more multi-faceted and multi-ethnic)” (Ibid).
Global migration flows must be taken into account when designing cultural participation
surveys, both for the countries of destination and of origin. In the destination countries, now
hosting a much more diverse population than in the past, there is a risk of giving “a cultural
representation of culture” (Pronovost, 2002) measuring only mainstream categories of culture
rather than specific practices, and consequently underestimating the cultural participation of
specific groups of populations. There is also the risk that the impact of cultural participation
on social cohesion within an ethnically-mixed population is sometimes too easily taken for
granted (Van den Broek, 2008). Migration flows also have important and complex relations
with the economy, culture and food security in their countries of origin. As Hagg (2006)
explains about Southern African Developing Countries (though this probably also applies to
other countries experiencing important migration flows), migrant workers are exposed to
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