Introduction to Article Series: Uncertainty and the State of Crisis as the New Default

We are living in a time of profound uncertainty. The Human Development Report 2023/2024 captures this sentiment in its opening lines, detailing a series of overlapping crises: the COVID-19 pandemic, the devastating toll of current wars and conflicts, and climate-related environmental disasters. This pervasive uncertainty extends into every sphere of public life. Globally, trust within societies has plummeted to historic lows. Polarisation on critical issues like climate change and social inequality is intensifying, while political extremism, demagoguery, and the destabilising influence of social media and AI are eroding the foundations of democracy.

The term ‘culture war’ is increasingly invoked in political discourse, underlining what all these crises at heart also mean. At its core, culture plays a crucial role in shaping both society and democracy. UNESCO defines culture as ‘the distinct spiritual, material, intellectual, and emotional features characterising a society. It includes arts, lifestyle, human rights, value systems, traditions, and beliefs.’¹Culture serves as the framework within which societal challenges unfold, while also influencing how individuals and communities think, feel, and act towards those challenges.

Amid the ongoing crises, calls for systemic change are growing louder, driven by the recognition that these challenges disproportionately affect those already marginalised by structural inequality. In response, the idea of resilience has gained recognition as a promising path forward. It advocates not only for strengthening systems and infrastructure but also for fostering social cohesion, inclusivity, and empowerment. However, technical solutions alone are not enough. To achieve lasting change, it is essential to confront and rethink the social and cultural patterns that sustain these crises.

The Cultural and Creative Economies (CCE) as the drivers of culture occupy a unique position at this very crossroads. By their very nature, CCE—spanning art, music, film, design, digital media, and others—are more than just traditional hubs of innovation. They are spaces where values, norms, and social practices are created, preserved, and reimagined. CCE and their actors play a critical role in questioning harmful structures, fostering awareness, uniting unlikely allies, pioneering innovative approaches, and linking societal impact with sustainable economic models.

At its heart, this is what creative impact is all about. However, despite its potential, creative impact still struggles to find grip in the broader context. The term is often met with ignorance or scepticism, dismissed by some as an opportunistic marketing buzzword designed to capitalise on the growing focus on the SDGs and the impact discourse. Some might suggest it lacks genuine novelty, simply rebranding existing concepts without substantive value. Also, with declining public funding for culture, it is often pushed to the margins of policy discussions and perceived as a „less significant“ or „less impactful“ sector. This exclusion is particularly apparent in its omission from key frameworks like the the Green Deal, and the Democracy Action Plan (Culture Action Europe, 2024).

These challenges hinder the progress and accessibility of creative impact. To overcome them and establish credibility, it is crucial to address three foundational needs: To define what makes it unique and separates it from more established concepts in the impact discourse, to empirically analyse its characteristics and working principles, and to understand how to bring creative impact to scale, as isolated it cannot meet the broader goal of systemic transformation. Resolving these issues is essential to make creative impact operational for funding measures and to integrate it into comprehensive societal impact strategies. CIRCE is taking the first steps toward addressing these challenges, laying the groundwork for further research and development.

The following article series presents a framework for thinking and working with creative impact, complementing basic understanding in the promotion of impact projects through creative practice and experimentation. Three articles and a working paper aim to contribute to addressing the questions:

• Article 1: Creative Impact: Redefining Culture and CCE as a Catalyst for Systemic Change
• Article 2: Creative Impact in Practice – Insights from CIRCE’s Fellowship Programme 2024
• Article 3: Scaling Creative Impact and the Role of Intermediary Organisations
• Working Paper: Transcending Measurement: Creative Impact as ‘Currency’ for Social Change

Insights are based as part of the scientific monitoring of the Fellowship Programme – Creative Impact in Practice launched by the Creative Impact Research Centre Europe (CIRCE), involving analyses of documentation and observations on the working principles and intended impact, a survey of participants and a series of interviews with international experts.

CIRCE’s Fellowship Programme serves as a central hub for research, experimentation, learning, and the implementation of impact-driven initiatives through the Economies. It provides support to ten Fellows as they develop and execute pilot projects, offering guidance through a structured mentoring programme, opportunities for community-based learning, and collaborations with external partners to apply and test impact solutions in real-world settings.

The Fellowship Programme is funded by the German Federal Government Commissioner of Culture and Media and Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion.

CIRCE is a network of European researchers and creatives working on understanding and enhancing the success and sustainability of creative impact ventures. It emphasizes unconventional, transdisciplinary, and collaborative research, blending academic and creative experimental and practical methods. Recognizing Europe’s diversity, CIRCE acknowledges the complexity and varied perspectives in its analytical processes of creative impact. You can learn more about CIRCE here: https://creativeimpact.eu/en/.

References

Culture Action Europe (2024). State of Culture.

UNDP (2024). Human Development Report 2023/2024.

1. Please note that throughout this article series, the term ‚culture‘ is always intended in its plural sense, representing the domain where the diversity of cultures unfolds and interacts ↩︎