Two weeks ago, the International Conference on Cultural Economics (ACEI 2025) took place in Rotterdam, bringing together researchers, policymakers, and cultural practitioners from around the globe. The CREARE Social team contributed to key discussions on understanding and valuing culture beyond traditional economic frameworks, particularly through the lens of cultural commons and the value-based approach (VBA).
How can artists reveal a humane economy? What is the process of realising value in the arts? How do grassroots artistic practices realise values in cities, and how can cultural policies sustain these values? What public policies exist for cultural commons?
Cultural commons: New approaches, new taxonomies
Two papers from the team were presented at the Cultural Commons session. The first, ‘What is Cultural in Cultural Commons?’, by Lyudmila Petrova, Marilena Vecco, Arjo Klamer and Daniele Tammaro, is a systematic literature review examining the cultural and social aspects of cultural goods operating as commons. The research has two primary objectives: firstly, to explore the connections between cultural goods and commons by assessing the cultural and social values these goods generate in a commons-related setting; and secondly, to integrate various academic sources in order to develop a taxonomy of commoning that captures the diverse values and functions of cultural goods.
The second paper, ‘Public Policy for Cultural Commons: The Case of Lisbon’, by Susana Graça, considers the policy implications of the commons and how their existence is interpreted. And it uses an example from the city of Lisbon to do so.
Reimagining values in cultural economics: The value-based approach
The CREARE Social team also played a central role in organising the proposed session, ‘The Values of the Value-Based Approach for Cultural Economics’, chaired by Michele Trimarchi. This session focused on the value-based approach to cultural economics.
The session also presented a forthcoming book on the value-based approach (Amsterdam University Press, 2025). The book is edited by Lyudmila Petrova, Christian Handke, Valeria Morea, Rosa Young and Arjo Klamer. Bringing together contributions from two VBA workshops in Venice and Hilversum, the book showcases research that challenges conventional economic paradigms and emphasises how multiple values are realised through artistic and cultural practices.
In a parallel session, meanwhile, Matilde Ferrero presented the paper ‘Reimagining the City through Urban Humanities: Towards a New Narrative of Grassroots Artistic Practices’, which she co-authored with Jessie Bower and Michele Trimarchi. Drawing on research in Turin and Rome, the paper explores how grassroots arts practices prefigure alternative models of cultural production in an urban context. The authors frame these practices as cultural commons and analyse them from a value-based perspective.
