Abstract
Opening the dialogue
Cultural management and policy are undergoing rapid and—in some views—disruptive transformations. New technologies, especially artificial intelligence (AI), foreground many of these changes. Political and economic restructuring and the rethinking (even repositioning) of the fundamental ideals of citizenship, freedom of expression, democratic governance, and cultural integrity challenge policy systems and the management of cultural enterprises, both public and private. Sustaining the ecosystems of cultural production and dissemination—while ensuring that policies support equitable access, artistic achievement, and critical assessment through scholarship—are topics addressed in the 2025 edition of Journal of Cultural Management and Cultural Policy. The first issue of 2025 addresses music management and policy. Our second issue explores the new frontiers of AI in cultural management and policy. While separate, the two issues underscore the urgency of rethinking how we study, manage, and govern cultural life in a period of profound transition.
With this issue, we also have the opportunity to reflect on the history of the journal, which was established in 2009 as Yearbook for Cultural Management under the editorial direction of Steffen Höhne, Martin Tröndle et al., and published by Transkript. In 2015, the publication transitioned into a dual language—German and English—journal Zeitschrift für Kulturmanagement / Journal of Cultural Management, published twice a year, with editors-in-chief Steffen Höhne and Martin Tröndle. In 2020, we expanded the journal's title to Journal of Cultural Management and Cultural Policy to incorporate the two vital areas of the field, and drew on authors and a readership that were more international in scope. At that time, Constance DeVereaux joined as the third editor-in-chief. Since 2023, she has also served as managing editor. The journal was published by De Gruyter and Transkript until 2025, when it was acquired by SAGE, the current publisher.
An attribute of the journal since its inception has been the treatment of timely themes. Each issue tackles an important thematic area representing the latest scholarship in the field. Our aim is to provide a platform for a variety of voices, diverse disciplinary backgrounds, and perspectives in the academic discourse on arts management and cultural policy. The journal therefore sees itself as a platform for heterogeneous scientific discourse and as an informed, regionally focused global forum. The journal aims to disseminate evidence-based knowledge to advance the field. It is not committed to any theory or political view, but rather to scientific knowledge alone that in turn generates dialogues among scholars, professionals in practice, policy makers, and other interested readers.
Dialogues in convergence
The first issue of 2025, Music Management and Policy: Challenges and Perspectives, edited by Olga Kolokytha (University of Krems), addresses the specific case of music, which has long been a vanguard in the cultural industries. One of the first to experience both the destabilizing effects as well as the advantages of digital technology, music is equally a component of the economic sector and of the domain of symbolic meaning, identity formation, and social cohesion. The case of music thus extends beyond management and the marketplace to address a wider range of concerns. Topics covered in this issue include equity and fairness, professionalism, the training and treatment of young musicians in conservatories, audience reception of new concert formats, and policy measures that either support or undermine music production and dissemination. Scholarly study of music management contributes to a broader understanding of the cultural sector and has the potential to make lasting contributions that drive the sector forward.
If music helps to model how cultural industries can adapt to technological disruption, among other forces, AI cuts across all sectors. No longer a distant possibility, AI is currently redefining many conditions of cultural production, distribution, and management. Even where it has not been formally adopted by cultural managers and cultural institutions, AI is transforming practices across the cultural field. From recommendation algorithms on streaming services to generative models capable of composing music, writing texts, and creating visual artworks, AI technologies present both opportunities and challenges for cultural management and policy.
The second issue of 2025, New Frontiers: Artificial Intelligence in Cultural Management and Policy, edited by Victoria Visanich (University of Malta), examines both the risks and potentials of AI. Topics treated in the 2025/2 issue include questions of cultural value, audience development, the use of AI in tandem with traditional research methods, philosophical reflections on the nature of art and humanity in an AI world, questions of funding, and a reconceptualization of McDonaldization as the AI-ization of cultural production and management, policy, and society. The authors address questions relating to art and artists, but also to the general public whose ideas, preferences, and understanding of art may be shaped, in the near future, by non-human intelligence. While AI can streamline cultural management operations over a wide range of day-to-day functions such as enhancing digitization, preservation, restoration, translation, audience development, marketing, and creative production, it also raises ethical, social, and governance concerns. Its rapid development has strained the ability of legal frameworks, regulatory standards, and policy measures to keep pace, creating uncertainty for creators, managers, and institutions. So, while AI promises efficiency, personalization, and data-driven insight, it also demands new skills, ethical awareness, and critical literacy. Cultural policy must grapple with how to ensure that AI fosters diversity, fairness, and inclusion rather than reinforcing inequalities or a deadening hegemony of standardized aesthetic forms.
A cumulative dialogue
Each 2025 issue stands on its own—the first on the enduring challenges and evolving practices of music management, the second on the emerging opportunities and risks of AI. When they are read together, they illuminate broader questions about creativity, governance, equity, sustainability, and the role of both cultural management and cultural policy as transformative forces in their own right. Juxtaposing the themes of each issue and the contributions of the authors encourages reflection on the interplay between traditional cultural practices and transformative technological forces, demonstrating how independent perspectives, juxtaposed, enrich our understanding of the contemporary cultural sector. In sum, the 2025 edition focuses on significant transformations confronting the arts and culture sector through the lens of music management and the use of AI, both of which are likely to have long-term effects.
In this way, the 2025 edition of the Journal of Cultural Management and Cultural Policy not only presents rigorous scholarship on two vitally important topics relating to the cultural sector but also invites readers to consider the cumulative insights that arise when multiple perspectives are placed in dialogue.
Continuing reflections
The Journal of Cultural Management and Cultural Policy takes on salient issues in cultural management and cultural policy that confront today's world. We present a diversity of scholarly views from around the globe that raise important questions and offer researched, evidence-based answers for consideration. The executive editors of the journal take an active role, working closely with special issue editors on two independently themed issues each year.
We welcome submissions from all authors who critically reflect on the field of cultural management and cultural policy through multifaceted methodological analyses and rich discourses on current issues. We seek to promote the development of research designs and methods relating to practices in the cultural management and cultural policy fields. The journal is open to all theoretical and methodological approaches. We welcome quantitative, qualitative, experimental, and literature-based submissions, provided that authors adhere to scholarly rigor. We strictly adhere to a thorough peer review process in accordance with SAGE's guidelines. Further information can be found at: https://journals.sagepub.com/author-instructions/CUP.
We also encourage scholars worldwide to propose special issue themes and to apply as guest editors for a special issue. Please send us a one-page description of your project to Constance DeVereaux cdeverea@buffalo.edu.