RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: In a global world, increasingly mediated by new technologies, but where place, communities and territories assume even more importance, the valuing of culture and creativity faces new conceptual and operational challenges. A diversity of anchoring mechanisms link global economic, social and cultural processes to the specificities of each territory. Cultural activities and creativity, which are central in these processes, are increasingly challenged by technologic mediation and by new forms of production and consumption. New intangible added values are generated, based on symbolic value and identity, where creativity, technology transfer, intangible heritage or craftsmanship are crucial components. All the traditional functions associated to cultural activities and creative processes (and the way they produced value and this value was recognized and appropriated) are facing new opportunities and threats, and the way the diverse (cultural, economic, social,…) value(s) of culture are perceived and measured need new conceptualizations and operative tools. This paper addresses these challenges in order to question the measurement tools usually applied in valuing the impact of culture in society, drawing upon a set of research projects (including some collective research-action processes with communities) conducted in recent years, with the aim of proposing a new conceptual grid to assess (and allow self-assessment of) the impacts of creative and cultural activities in the societies and territories, in their diversity and multidimensionality. METHODOLOGY: This paper draws upon (and crosses) work developed in the scope of four different research projects in DINAMIA’CET-ISCTE in recent years (RESHAPE, ARTSBANK, IMPACTOS-ARTEMREDE, CREATOUR), which contribute to this discussion in several ways (working with artists, cultural promoters, creative tourism agents and public authorities, in several territorial contexts, both at Portuguese and European levels, assessing the impact of their activities in their communities). Combining the work developed (and still under development) in these 4 research projects, we propose an impact self assessment toolkit which expresses the diversity and multidimensionality in value creation. A tentative conceptual grid to assess the impacts of creative activities in the territories and communities, has been developed and tested with cultural and creative actors in some of these projects, and we propose operationalizing this tool in a digital application/platform that allows systematization, self-assessment and self-awareness of value creation and their impacts by agents of the cultural/creative sector. EXPECTED RESULTS: The paper proposes an analytical framework to help disentangling the increasing complexity and diversity of the mechanisms of creation of value in cultural activities and to facilitate the assessment of its social impacts in a particular territory or community, in all their diversity. A specific grid is presented, comprising 5 main dimensions (cultural, economic, social, environmental; citizenship and participation), for assessing the territorial impacts of cultural activities. These are subdivided in 15 sub-dimensions , and operationalized in 75 different indicators. This analytical framework is now being transposed to a digital application/platform that allows the systematization, self-assessment and self-awareness of value creation and their impacts by the agents of the cultural/creative sector.

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