Culture and Wellbeing in Cities

Introduction

Cities around the world are increasingly recognising culture as central to health and wellbeing, yet how culture is defined, measured, and embedded in urban policy varies enormously. This collaboration between the Jameel Arts & Health Lab (JA&HL) and the World Cities Culture Forum (WCCF) sets out to understand where culture sits within city-level health and wellbeing systems: what gets counted, what gets connected, and what gets left out.

Scope

Despite growing interest in the culture-health relationship, significant gaps remain in how cities track and report on cultural engagement as a dimension of wellbeing. Indicator systems, dashboards, and governance frameworks vary widely across urban contexts, and culture is often absent, underrepresented, or narrowly defined within them. There is a particular need to understand how different narratives (e.g.  instrumental, intrinsic, equity-focused, economic, and rights-based) shape what cities measure and how they act.

This study addresses these gaps through a narrative review involving document analysis with qualitative interviews. Drawing on city wellbeing indices and dashboards, cultural and creative city monitors, and the empirical literature on culture–wellbeing links, the research maps existing approaches to indicator development, examines how cities connect cultural data with wellbeing goals, and generates a set of illustrative examples to inform future research, reporting, and practice.

Insights and Deliverables

This narrative review involves a targeted document analysis, and includes engagement with key city personnel who can speak to how their city currently measures wellbeing and uses those measures in decision-making. Key insights will be shared at the 15th World Cities Culture Summit 2026 in Tokyo and lay the groundwork for future work.

Project Team

This research is co-led by the Jameel Arts & Health Lab at New York University and the World Cities Culture Forum, bringing together expertise in arts and health research, cultural policy, and urban governance across a global network of cities.

Photo credit: Image Courtesy of City of Hong Kong