B5639 - Cultural Economics: Value in Cultural Policy and Management

Learning outcomes

The objectives of the course are: • To provide an understanding of the influence of economic thinking on public (cultural) policies and on the activities of arts organizations; • To raise awareness about how the role of arts and arts organizations in society depends on the historical, cultural, social, economic and political contexts in which they operate; • To provide an overview of the current debate and research on the values of art for society; • To raise awareness about the current urgency for artists, arts organizations and their managers, and policy makers to make the case for arts and culture; • To provide an overview of tools that helps to capture, elaborate, present, and discuss the values that artists and arts organizations create for society. At the end of the course, students will be able: • To define Cultural Economics according to the two main approaches to this field of study; • To define Cultural Policy in general and to identify influential policies and political actors in specific local, national and international contexts; • To articulate and apply current taxonomies of the values of art to the analysis of current (cultural) policies and of their impact on how arts and cultural organizations try to legitimate their role in society; • To apply state-of-the-art advocacy and accountability frameworks for art and culture to real cases; • To reflect on the (in)adequacy of these frameworks and of the language of numbers in the evaluation of arts and arts organizations and to experiment with alternative forms and “languages” of accountability.

Syllabus

Office hours

See the website of Francesco Chiaravalloti