ABSTRACT

Arts and culture organizations are often framed as important actors in urban development efforts; however, questions of equity of access to cultural amenities and the problem of inequities in their distribution remain important concerns. This article explores geographical and demographic differences in access to 335 public and nonprofit cultural organizations located in the four counties of Metropolitan Detroit (Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw). It introduces a comprehensive, multi-component, index of access and uses GIS-modeling approach to investigate spatial distribution of these organizations. U.S. Census Bureau data are further used to analyze possible inequities in the distribution of cultural resources, as well as access that diverse populations have to such organizations. The analysis reveals that cultural organizations are unevenly distributed in the geographic area, and that certain groups of the population have relatively low access to particular cultural amenities. The article discusses implications of the findings and suggests future research directions.

摘要

艺术和文化组织通常被视为城市发展努力的重要参与者；然而，平等获得文化设施的问题和分配不公的问题仍然是重要问题。本文探讨了访问位于底特律大都会四个县（韦恩、奥克兰、马科姆、沃什特瑙）的 335 个公共和非营利文化组织的地理和人口差异。它引入了一个全面的、多组件的访问索引，并使用 GIS 建模方法来调查这些组织的空间分布。美国人口普查局的数据进一步用于分析文化资源分配中可能存在的不平等，以及不同人群对此类组织的访问权。分析表明，文化组织在地理区域内分布不均，某些人群获得特定文化设施的机会相对较低。文章讨论了研究结果的含义并提出了未来的研究方向。