Do cultural differences affect the trade of cultural goods? A study in trade of music

This study investigates the impact of cultural differences on trade decision and trade volume of cultural goods, using the data of traded music compact discs (CDs). According to ethnomusicological and civilization classifications, we classify countries into several groups and make novel variables that properly represent the cultural differences. We use the gravity model of trade proposed in Helpman et al. (The Quarterly Journal of Economics 123(2):441–487, 2008), which is utilized to avoid selection and endogeneity biases of estimation. In addition, we exploit an identifying assumption on the types of consumers, so that one of the cultural variables can satisfy the exclusion restriction in our two-stage estimation procedure. Our empirical hypothesis is that the trade volume of music is larger between two countries with greater cultural familiarity. The empirical results show that cultural differences have significant influences on the trading decision and volume of music traded in addition to the traditional determinants of trade. This finding supports our hypothesis that cultural familiarity promotes the cultural goods trade.     

Economic impacts of cultural heritage – Research and perspectives

Investment in cultural heritage (and other forms of culture) are often claimed to be beneficial for a local economy, not only in terms of cultural consumption, but also in the form of increased employment and income. This article addresses some methodological questions regarding economic impact studies of investments in cultural heritage projects. Different types of direct and indirect impacts are being discussed, especially how these can be calculated. We also give a short overview over some studies of economic impact of different cultural and/or tourism activities, and the pros and cons of these studies. In a study of the Norwegian town of Røros, we find that tourism related to the cultural heritages in the region contribute some 7 per cent to overall employment and income.     

Are workers in the cultural industries paid differently?

This article aims to explore wage differentials between employees in three sub-industries of the cultural industries compared with the main (1-digit level) industry to which they belong. We use data from the Wage Indicator Questionnaire 2001/2002, which includes information on 12,757 employees in the Netherlands. We find that workers in these particular sub-industries of the cultural industries are paid differently compared with their respective main industries. Workers in entertainment and publishing and printing (P&P) are less endowed with standard labour market characteristics. However, whereas workers in entertainment face negative price or evaluation-related effects, the opposite holds for workers in P&P. Workers in IT are more endowed with standard labour market characteristics, but they receive lower rewards for their labour market characteristics.     

Comparing cultural heritage values in South East Asia – Possibilities and difficulties in cross-country transfers of economic values

Benefit transfer refers to the transfer of economic values from a primary valuation study (study site) to a site where we need to conduct policy analysis (policy site). Due to the considerable costs and time required to conduct primary valuation studies, using benefit transfers to estimate the values for sites not yet valued is likely to attract policy interest. While benefit transfer is being increasingly applied in studies on environmental goods, its application in the field of cultural heritage resources is rare. The unique nature of these public goods, and differences in the size and demographic characteristics of the affected populations lead to a significant risk of benefit transfer providing irrelevant estimates for cultural heritage. In this study, we compared the results of two contingent valuation (CV) studies involving historic temples in Thailand and Vietnam, tested the validity and reliability of benefit transfers between the two sites, and explored the possibilities and difficulties in such transfers. We found that the error in transferring unadjusted mean willingness-to-pay (WTP) ranged from 46% to 129%. Adjustments for differences in purchasing power parity (PPP), income level and income elasticity between the sites substantially increased rather than decreased transfer errors in many instances. Function transfers did not perform better than unadjusted unit transfers. These results suggest that there are other important factors – possibly physical, cultural and institutional variables – that need to be taken into account in explaining the differences in WTP for cultural heritage aside from the usual income and socio-economic variables captured in CV studies. Until we are able to identify these other factors and measure their impacts, the potential policy use of benefit transfer in the case of cultural heritage goods remains limited.     

Visitors’ preferences for preserving the attributes of a world heritage site

UNESCO world cultural heritage sites, in particular landscapes, impose several land use restrictions and consequently impact the welfare of various stakeholders. As the preservation of the denomination implies costs, it is of utmost importance to identify and value stakeholders’ preferences. This paper applies discrete choice experiments to the Alto Douro Wine Region, classified by UNESCO as world heritage site. The results suggest a clear hierarchy of attributes. In addition, the introduction of both socioeconomic variables and interaction terms provides useful insights on systematic heterogeneity of preferences with interesting directions for heritage safeguarding.     

What price evidence? The ethics of office and the ethics of social science in British cultural policy

This paper considers the use of evidence for government decision-making using ethnographically informed data from the lived experiences of those involved in British cultural policy. It does this in order to engage and extend work that has sought to defend bureaucratic forms of activity. The paper offers an empirical case study of how the civil servants’ ethic of office [DuGay, P. (2008) ‘Max weber and the moral economy of office’, Journal of Cultural Economy, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 129–144] is reinforced by the identity of the social scientist. The use of social science in policy advice is a moment where the bureaucrats are able to distance themselves from political decision-making, thus reasserting an important aspect of civil service practice and identity. However, as the latter part of the article illustrates, the dynamics of cultural policy-making, in particular the use of economics, situate the role of social science as paradoxical. It is both supportive and corrosive of the bureaucratic ethic. This paradox is the basis for a critical perspective on the ethic of office as deployed in contemporary government.     

Is There a Crisis of Accountability in the American Research University?

America's research universities, approximately 125 in number,play important roles in the nation's research system, and help toset the tone for all institutions of research and higherlearning. As the research universities have formed closer linkswith industry, new problems have arisen that have precipitated amajor debate. The academic medical centres and related lifescience departments present some of the most challenging newissues, which are analysed in this paper within the framework ofthe biomedical research system that has evolved in the UnitedStates since the Second World War.     

How do class,status, ethnicity,and religiosity shape cultural omnivorousness in Israel?

In this article we study the determinants of cultural participation in Israel with an emphasis on the Weberian distinction between class and status. The class measure is based on occupational groupings, and status is operationalized as a rank of occupations based on social distance. We expect that class will be less important than status in shaping cultural participation patterns. In addition, due to the importance of ethnicity and religiosity in Israeli society, we expect that these factors will be significant in shaping cultural participation. Data are based on two telephone surveys conducted in 2006 and 2007 of a random sample of the Jewish population in Israel. We find that, contrary to our expectation, class is more influential than status. We also find that ethnicity and religiosity are important factors that shape cultural participation patterns. We discuss possible explanations to the finding regarding class and status, with special attention to the role cultural policy plays in mediating the economic effect on consumer behavior. We also call for more attention to ethnicity and religiosity in studies of cultural stratification.

The origin of syngenite in black crusts on the limestone monument King's Gate (Belgrade Fortress,Serbia) – the role of agriculture fertiliser

Black crusts formed on limestone built into the King's Gate represent the most important process in stone deterioration that is occurring in this part of the monumental complex of the Belgrade Fortress (Serbia). Of special importance is the association of salts (namely gypsum and syngenite). Syngenite is a common secondary deposit on granite monuments and on medieval stained glass (i.e., on K-containing materials). However, its appearance over calcareous substrates is not apparent, particularly in cases where cement mortar was not used for bounding. The origins of the potassium and sulphate ions required for syngenite formation are related to meteoritic water, which penetrates the soil above the arch of King's Gate. Water dissolves some soil components and becomes enriched with various ions before coming into contact with the limestone blocks. Enriched water contains two times more K⁺ and SO₄^2? ions than pristine meteoritic water does. The source of the required ions is potassium-sulphate that is present in agricultural fertilisers that are used above the monument. The proposed mechanism for syngenite formation was additionally supported with laboratory experiment. The results of X-ray diffractometry and SEM-EDS analyses of limestone treated with potassium-sulphate solution and sulphuric acid suggest the possibility that the syngenite was formed over calcite:CaCO₃ + K₂SO₄ + H₂SO₄ → K₂Ca(SO₄)₂ H₂O + CO₂↑However, the complex mechanisms of gypsum and syngenite formation under natural conditions (variable concentration of potassium and sulphate ions, intermediates phases, temperature changes, humidity, the amount of disposable water etc.) do not exclude the possibility of syngenite formation over gypsum.     

Quantification of wall surface heterogeneity and its influence on species diversity at medieval castles – implications for the environmentally friendly preservation of cultural heritage

Historic buildings are important for cultural history and provide a variety of habitats for animals and plants. Especially structural heterogeneity of wall surfaces is perceived to support biological diversity. Nevertheless, in traditional approaches goals of biodiversity preservation and monument restoration are perceived to interfere and to be mutually exclusive. As a consequence, priority is often given to constructional restoration accepting the loss of local populations and biodiversity. At walls of medieval castles, including an experimental restoration project where conventional and less intensive restoration techniques were applied, we relate species composition and richness to wall properties. Especially wall surface structure is quantified using a novel approach. The study focuses on lichens, mosses and vascular plants. Boosted regression tree analyses and non-metric multidimensional scaling techniques are applied to detect the influence of abiotic site conditions on biodiversity. We find species richness to be promoted by wall surface heterogeneity. However, species composition is more affected by restoration approaches than species richness. Lichen composition varies considerably while vascular plants and mosses are less affected by wall properties. We suggest strategies that are combining both societal targets, the preservation of historic monuments and of species diversity. Careful restoration is capable of supporting both, the maintenance of cultural heritage and of rare and unique anthropogenic habitats. Wall surface heterogeneity needs to be witnessed for both aspects as it affects both species composition as well as the effectiveness of cleaning methods.     

Culturalisation and devices: what is culture in cultural economy?

Theorisation of culture is often absent from research on production in the creative and cultural sector. Further, cultural production has been largely untouched by the insights of the cultural economy approach. Culturalisation is a means of addressing the question of what constitutes culture and thus a cultural (economy) approach. It is the process by which culture and cultural production combine in the ‘operationalisation of the real.’ Culturalisation underpins much scholarship in this journal by posing the (economic) real as a problem of definition in order to illustrate the operations involved in its temporary resolution. The implications of this position need further addressing. There is a feedback between culture as a problem of definition and a cultural approach. Devices can interrogate the relationship between processes of cultural definition and the conceptual parameters of a cultural economy approach. Workshopping, projects and events are put forward as cultural devices emerging from a 10-month ethnography of literary performance in Bristol, England. This illustration shows firstly, how culturalisation occurs in a designated cultural sector to contingently realise culture; and secondly, the implicit logic of cultural economy as culturalisation, typified by the device as method, so as to open a debate concerning its implications.     

Continuity or Discontinuity? Scientific Governance in the Pre-History of the 1977 Law of Higher Education and Research in Sweden

The objective of this paper is to balance two major conceptual tendencies in science policy studies, continuity and discontinuity theory. While the latter argue for fundamental and distinct changes in science policy in the late 20th century, continuity theorists show how changes do occur but not as abrupt and fundamental as discontinuity theorists suggests. As a point of departure, we will elaborate a typology of scientific governance developed by Hagendijk and Irwin (2006) and apply it to new empirical material. This makes possible a contextualization of the governance of science related to the codification of the “third assignment” of the Swedish higher education law of 1977. The law defined the relation between university science and Swedish citizens as a dissemination project, and did so despite that several earlier initiatives actually went well beyond such a narrow conceptualisation. Our material reveals continuous interactive and rival arrangements linking the state, public authorities, the universities and private industrial enterprises. We show how different but coexisting modes of governance of science existed in Sweden during the 20th century, in clear contrast with the picture promoted by discontinuity theorists. A close study of the historical development suggests that there were several periods of layered governance when interactions and dynamics associated with continuity as well as discontinuity theories were prevalent. In addition, we conclude that the typology of governance applied in the present paper is fruitful for carrying out historical analyses of the kind embarked upon in spite of certain methodological shortcomings.     

`But What is a Chemical Engineer?': Profiling the Membership of the British Institution of Chemical Engineers, 1922–1956

This paper examines the membership of the professionalassociation of chemical engineering in Britain – the Institutionof Chemical Engineers – during its first three decades. Usingcollective methods of biography, it explores how long it took forclear boundaries to develop between this membership and the widerchemical community. Delineation was linked to the development ofan academic discipline. This paper argues that the indeterminateconstituency of the IChemE delayed growth, but allowed it to playa key role in shaping the development of the new profession.     

Dreamings beyond ‘opportunity’: the collaborative economics of an aboriginal heritage trail

This article presents the Lurujarri Heritage Trail, an Indigenous tourism experience in Northwest Australia as exemplary for a world different from the teleological-minded futurism of neoliberal market economics. Drawing on long-term ethnographic fieldwork undertaken between 2011 and 2015, it first outlines how in 1987 the Trail was established at the very margins of the Australian economy. Through its emphasis on the here and now that is grounded in a collaboration of people and land and acknowledges diverse worldviews and ontological differences, the Trail today offers its participants a means to experience Indigenous culture as different from Western politics and development policies. As a result, its allegedly marginal Dreaming (Bugarrigarra) leads beyond the pursuit of economic opportunity and in doing so enabled the defeat of large-scale industrialisation in the region.     

Shadow banking: a story of the Doppelgänger (the Double) in science of finance

ABSTRACT

After the 2007 financial crisis central bank economists in the US produced a map of shadow banking system, a fragile interconnectedness of regulated and unregulated financial institutions, to explain why the crisis had happened. This piece of cartographic work in banking regulation had two aims: (a) to represent the economic reality, including the parts that were not in regulatory sight, with full realism and (b) to develop a regulatory surveillance regime to monitor shadow banking to prevent future crises. This paper problematises the first aim as a peculiar cognitive response to the knowledge crisis of economics which challenges the consensus on modern finance as post-modern Baudrilliardian simulacra. The paper then introduces a cultural economy perspective to explore the regulatory fear in the second aim of the shadow banking analysis with references to the theme of the Doppelgänger (the Double) in the genre of horror stories. Finally the societal consequences of the control oriented epistemological choices of the shadow banking analysis are problematised by using Michel Serres concepts of foedera natura versus foedera fati.