From Culture to Smart Culture. How Digital Transformations Enhance Citizens’ Well-Being Through Better Cultural Accessibility and Inclusion

The aim of the paper at hand is to discuss how digital transformations can improve citizens' well-being in terms of cultural consumption possibilities. Culture is traditionally inextricably connected to the life of a city. So far the digital revolution has improved virtually all areas of activity within cities, such as communication, transportation, distribution, healthcare, finance, education, and business. On a similar note, it is high time for culture to follow the same trend in order for citizens to benefit from improved cultural accessibility and inclusion. Without the latter, the cultural experience would be less accessible and/or more costly. First, we showcase local initiatives regarding cultural technology. We then analyze the main initiatives in terms of public policy aimed at improving accessibility and inclusion for memory institutions (galleries, libraries, archives and museums), as well as their implications. Further, we present the main achievements in terms of cultural digitization using as reference the European Digital Library, Europeana. We conclude by highlighting the main benefits and challenges of developing smart culture, with a focus on citizens' well-being.