The diversity of diversity: further methodological considerations on the use of the concept in cultural economics

• Autor(a) principal: Flôres Junior, Renato Galvão
• Data de Publicação: 2006
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional do FGV (FGV Repositório Digital)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10438/441
• topic: Culture; Diversity; Historical periods; Indexes; Political systems; Economia; Economia; Economia - Métodos estatísticos; Multiculturalismo

The implications of diversity still raise confusion in the cultural debate. We address them from both a formal and conceptual viewpoints, putting in check the validity of some arguments. We conclude that: measuring diversity demands key decisions and careful statistical procedures; ignorance on optimal diversity levels and on ways to generate them is widespread in the cultural field; there is no support for cultural diversity as something associated to fair economic and political systems; restriction to sheer economics requires the establishment of links between diversity and measurable properties – something rather incipient. Diversity, as a social choice, should be distinguished from it as an economic value.