Beyond Price: Value in Culture, Economics, and the Arts(Murphy Institute Studies in Political Economy)

Much recent discussion surrounding valuation of the arts and culture, particularly in the policy arena, has been dominated by a concern to identify an economic and financial basis for valuation of art works, arts, activities and more general ways in which we express our culture. Whereas a great deal can be gained from a fuller understanding of the economic value of art, there is a real danger that financial considerations will tend to crowd out all other aspects of value. This book moves beyond the limitations implicit in a narrow economic approach, bringing different disciplinary viewpoints together, opening up a dialogue between scholars about the processes of valuation that they use and exploring differences and identifying common ground between the various viewpoints. The book's common theme – the tension between economic and cultural modes of evaluation – unites the chapters, making it a coherent and unified volume that provides a new and unique perspective on how we value art.

Table of Contents:
1. Value and valuation in art and culture: introduction and overview Michael Hutter and David Throsby; Part I. Origins of Meaning: 2. Creating value between cultures: contemporary Australian Aboriginal art Terry Smith; 3. Entertainment value: intrinsic, instrumental, and transactional Richard Shusterman; 4. Creating artistic from economic value: changing input prices and new art Michael Hutter; Part II. The Creation of Value in Artistic Work: 5. The creation of value by artists: the case of Hector Berlioz and the Symphonic Fantastique David Throsby; 6. Art, honor, and excellence in early modern Europe Elizabeth Honig; 7. Rubbish and aura: archival economics Kurt Heinzelman; Part III. Continuity and Innovation: 8. Value in Yolngu ceremonial song performance: continuity and change Steven Knopoff; 9. The ritual and the promise: why people value social ritual Lourdes Arizpe; 10. 'More than Luther of these modern days': the construction of Emerson's reputation in American culture 1882–1903 Richard Teichgraeber; Part IV. Appreciation and Ranking: 11. Quantitative approaches to valuation in the arts, with an application to movies Victor Ginsburgh and Sheila Weyers; 12. Confluence of cultural and economic values: three historical moments Neil De Marchi; 13. Agreements of judgements: Masaccio and the Chapmans Carolyn Wilde; 14. Time and preferences in cultural consumption Marina Bianchi; Part V. Cultural Policies: 15. What values should count in the arts? The tension between economic effects and cultural value Bruno Frey; 16. The public value of controversial art: the case of the Sensation exhibit Arthur Brooks; 17. Going to extremes: commerical and non-profit valuation in the U.S. arts system William Ivey.

About the Author :
Michael Hutter is Professor of Economics at Witten/Herdecke University, Germany, and holds the Chair for Economic Theory at that University. He has an extensive list of publications in the areas of economic theory, philosophy and the economics of art and culture. He is a co-editor of Soziale Systeme: Zeitschrift fur soziologische Theorie, and a member of the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Cultural Economics and the European Journal of Law and Economics. Professor Hutter is a past President of the Association for Cultural Economics International, and has held visiting appointments at the New School of Social Research (New York), the European University (Florence), the University of Catania, the University of Innsbruck and the University of California at Berkeley. In the fall of 2003 he was a Visiting Scholar at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. David Throsby is Professor of Economics at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He has published widely in the economics of the arts and culture, and the relationship between cultural and economic policy. His research has focused on demand and supply in the performing arts, the role of artists as economic agents, cultural policy, culture in economic development, sustainability and cultural capital, theories of value in the arts and culture, and the economics of heritage conservation. He is a past President of the Association for Cultural Economics International, and is a member of the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Cultural Economics, Poetics, and the International Journal of Cultural Policy. Professor Throsby's most recent book, Economics and Culture, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2001, and has now appeared also in Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Korean and Japanese translations. He is also co-editor of the Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture (2006). He is currently working on a book on the economics of cultural policy.

Review :
'Different disciplinary viewpoints are combined to identify the processes of valuation that are used in the valuation of the arts and culture, and exploring differences and identifying common ground between the various viewpoints.' Times Higher Education Supplement