Abstract This study investigates how cultural funding patterns reflect regional inequalities through network analysis techniques. Public funding of cultural projects should preserve diversity but can intensify socioeconomic inequalities; hence, countries can benefit from macro analyses of funding data. We present a network-based study of Brazil’s main cultural funding mechanism (2010–2014), based on 106,804 transactions across 12,326 projects. Our research objectives are to: (1) identify distinct regional cultural funding patterns, (2) quantify sponsorship disparities across states, and (3) construct a network representation of cultural segment relationships that reveals funding dynamics. Our findings reveal distinct cultural signatures and regional disparities, with some states 40% less likely to secure sponsorship. Although strongly correlated with economic indicators, a significant share of funding variance remains unexplained and could be a reflection of the diverse Brazilian cultural scene. Our primary contribution is the creation of a “cultural space” network that (unlike previous descriptive analyses of cultural funding) exposes systematic relationships between cultural segments and demonstrates how these connections correlate with economic development. This approach can support evidence-based policy reforms by revealing both the magnitude and structural nature of funding imbalances across Brazil’s diverse regions.
Pacheco et al. (Wed,) studied this question.