Trine Bille, Anna Mignosa, Ruth Towse: Teaching cultural economics. Edward Elgar, 2020
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Trine Bille, Anna Mignosa, Ruth Towse: Teaching cultural economics. Edward Elgar, 2020 Jen Snowball1
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Teaching Cultural Economics is designed as a practical guide and source of inspiration for lecturers wanting to either design a whole specialist course in cultural economics, or looking for interesting and applicable examples from the cultural sector to use in more general economics courses. It consists of 37 chapters. As Ruth Towse explains in Chapter 2, the book sets out to answer the questions of why to teach cultural economics, how it should be taught and what to teach. Chapters 2 to 6 are each written from the perspective of a specific contributor. Besides adding an engaging personal touch seldom seen in books like this, the authors also give the reader a sense of how the field of cultural economics has developed over time. The changing attitude toward applying economic principles to understand and manage the cultural sector (originally seen in a very negative light) is also captured. Each contributor gives some of their own autobiography, what made them interested in the subject in the first place, as well as practical information on curriculum design and delivery, based on their extensive experience in teaching cultural economics in a variety of contexts. Of particular interest is the acknowledgement of the increasingly inter-disciplinary nature of cultural economics, and advice on how to approach teaching it to students with a good grounding in economics, but not much knowledge and experience in the cultural sector; or students who have knowledge and experience in the cultural sector, but not much in the way of economic theory. For the latter group, the challenge is how to incorporate a rigorous discussion of economic theory, without, as Seaman puts it “surrendering to real or imagined basic math phobia”, while still maintaining their interest and engagement in the subject. Part of the answer seems to be to adopt a “student centred” approach to curriculum development, so that the interests and experiences of the class can be incorporated into a meaningful learning experience for all. The rest of the book is divided into six sections of four or more chapters each:
* Jen Snowball [email protected] 1
Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa
13
Vol.:(0123456789)
Journal of Cultural Economics
Part 1 deals with public support for arts and culture, combining a theoretical review of topics such as cultural value with more practical means of demonstrating such value through performance assessment and economic impact studies. Part 2 turns to how cultural production is financed, including tax incentives, philanthropy and the economics of crowdfunding. Part 3 discusses artists’ labour markets, including earnings, contracts, copyrights and the “long tail” of income associated with the superstar phenomenon. Part 4 introduces the demand side, and consumer behaviour, including demand for cultural goods, audience research and market segmen
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