Entering the Field: Valuation and Evalua
Volledige vakbeschrijving
This course introduces you to key research on, as well as practices in, the fields of arts and heritage. We take an interdisciplinary approach by building on insights from cultural sociology, cultural economics, and cultural policy studies. By examining theories on valuation, in past and present, you will come to view arts and heritage practices primarily as sites of value creation and value contestation. This will provide you with a solid basis for the themes and topics in your courses later in the year.
Throughout these eight weeks, you will develop an understanding of the main characteristics of the arts and heritage fields. Together, we’ll find out what these characteristics mean for how these fields are organized, for the position of arts and heritage in society, and what the implications are for (your) professional practice. You will deepen such understanding by applying your insights in a research project on current arts and heritage practices in the Netherlands.
For your own research project in this course, you will analyse a cultural policy or funding program in relation to themes that are current in both research and professional practice (i.e. participation, inclusion, sustainability). By identifying and analysing key themes, values and discourses in your research on a current policy program, you learn to distinguish between structural and context-specific characteristics and conditions, and to compare across different periods, as well as geographical and social contexts. At the end of the course, you and your peers will apply your newly developed academic and professional skills by designing a funding proposal for a cultural project that fits with your research topic and policy program.
Doelstellingen van dit vak
At the end of the course, students are able to:
- demonstrate knowledge and understanding of relevant academic disciplines studying the field of arts & heritage and key debates, definitions, theories, methods and concepts in these disciplines;
- critically analyse and understand the position and role of the various actors and factors in professional arts and heritage practices;
- critically analyse and understand the role of evidence and data in arts and heritage policy;
- demonstrate knowledge and understanding of policy programmes (in different levels of government as well as private foundations) in the field of arts and heritage;
- identify, describe, contextualize, analyse and compare issues related to developing policy goals, choosing policy instruments and measuring effects;
- demonstrate general understanding of discourse analysis as a research method
- produce and justify an independent critical judgement related to the topics and practices mentioned above;
- use design thinking skills as an approach to creative problem solving.
Aanbevolen literatuur
- Bell, D. & K. Oakley (2015). Cultural Policy. London: Routledge
- Hutter, M., & D. Throsby eds. (2011). Beyond Price: Value in Culture, Economics and the Arts. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press
- Maanen, H. van (2009). How to Study Art Worlds: On the Societal Functioning of Aesthetic Values. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press