Introduction

The key components of the research and information infrastructure for cultural policy are the many research and documentation centers that have come into being. This chapter discusses twenty different organizations that are active participants in the research and information infrastructure. These cases represent a small but important sample of the existing cultural policy research and documentation centers in Europe and Canada. Most of the better-known centers with substantial research or documentation agendas are included. Although they are discussed individually, the chapter groups these cases by country, so that one can more fully appreciate the interrelationships that characterize each country's cultural policy research ecology. The chapter explores France, the Netherlands, Great Britain, and Canada in some detail. It also discusses two other important centers, one a well-established research center in Germany and the other a new cultural observatory in Hungary.