Why a(nother) book on cultural economics?

Starting from an account of the author’s encounter with cultural economics, the chapter provides an overview of the evolution of the field and provides some clarifications of the relationship between cultural economics and cultural management. The author underlines how the union of culture and economics still causes some puzzlement so that an explanation is often necessary. Economics has long been considered as intruding into the cultural sphere; however, cultural economics has begun to be considered as a possible tool to solve some of the problems of the cultural sector, and eventually guarantee the survival of the latter. The chapter provides an overview of the evolution of the discipline since its birth in 1960 until today, underlying the role played by new technologies and, especially, digitization and the Internet in transforming the cultural sector. These changes have led to a faster development of cultural economics. Interestingly, art schools, art academies, and courses in the humanities have begun to introduce cultural economics in their curriculums. This book intends to provide a ‘tool’ to support cultural economics teaching.