Handbook of Cultural Work

“Humanity’s last two-and-half years has been impacted by major crises, teaching us six existential lessons: First, peace can never been taken for granted, even in Europe. Second, a virus is able to put an entire economic system on hold everywhere in the world. Third, accelerated climate action is not an option but a must for humanity to survive. Fourth, our food and energy security can wane within weeks and put millions of people at risk. Fifth, the EU is stronger than one thinks. We stick together thanks to what appears sometimes to be a weakness: the necessity to decide together. Sixth, a European Sentiment is nurtured by positive and coordinated action, in solidarity with the most affected,” write our colleagues in the newly published The Handbook of Cultural Work, Carras, C. (Ed.). (2024). London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts. 

This open access handbook explores the increasingly cross-disciplinary nature of cultural work and assesses how it engages with other fields, such as education, research and health, as well as the defining issues of our time such as the climate emergency, the quest for sustainable development, discrimination of all kinds and the need to achieve greater inclusivity. Each of the book’s six sections includes contributions from scholars and practitioners from across Europe based both on their experience of working in and a theoretical analysis of these areas. The book is essential reading for students of arts and cultural management, management in other creative industries and curation.

The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on Bloomsbury Collections.  The open access was funded by The Onassis Foundation, Greece.