Know Your Clubs – Das Club­ver­zeich­nis als Grund­la­ge für Kul­tur­po­li­tik und Stadt­ent­wick­lung

Music clubs are cultural anchor points, spaces for social participation, and indispensable components of the musical infrastructure. In order for their importance to be adequately considered in cultural policy, funding, urban development, and urban planning, reliable data is essential. The Club Directory of the German Music Information Centre (miz) documents the German club landscape based on quality-assured criteria and offers a unique nationwide research platform. This session introduces the functions and potential uses of the directory, while highlighting its cultural-political relevance: the miz creates the database for research, funding policies, and infrastructure planning—and could therefore also play a central role in developing a nationwide club register. After all, if you want to protect clubs, you first have to know where they are.