In June 2025, the hashtag #NoChineseCanLeaveTheBritishMuseumSmiling circulated widely on the Chinese platform RedNote, sparking public debate over the British Museum's Chinese collections. This article examines how displaced Chinese artefacts are framed differently in the Museum's Chinese galleries and on digital platforms. Data were collected between October 2023 and August 2025 through two rounds of exhibition fieldwork and through a stratified sample of 622 RedNote posts drawn from 2,310 items. In addition, 18 semi-structured interviews were conducted with museum professionals globally. Drawing on Heidegger's concept of care, we argue that curatorial practices enact spatio-narrative hegemony by embedding artefacts in universalist narratives, while digital publics exercise narrative sovereignty - renegotiating authority, memory and belonging across physical and digital contexts. Theoretically, the article advances a phenomenologically grounded framework for analysing contested heritage in hybrid environments. Practically, it suggests that museums adopt more participatory curatorial strategies when addressing displaced collections in the digital age.
This study examines how Black music significantly shapes Canada's cultural and economic landscape while illuminating systemic challenges that hinder Black music professionals. Guided by the Critical Ecological Model, we analyze individual, organizational, and societal factors shaping Black music in Canada and translate results into level-specific implications (Cukier et. al., ). A mixed-methods design integrated survey data from 1,702 respondents with market analyses, revealing that Black music routinely occupies over half of Canada's top-streamed songs. Yet barriers - including limited funding, underrepresentation in leadership, and discrimination - undermine Black professionals' career trajectories, creative output, and well-being. Intersectional factors particularly affect women, highlighting the need for targeted solutions. Overall, the research underscores the urgency of equitable policies, inclusive organizational practices, and anti-racist interventions to fully harness Black music's contributions to Canada's arts sector.
The article explores how performing arts students who are studying for careers "behind and around the scenes" (BAS) negotiate future career orientations and professional identity formation in relation to symbolically constructed meaning structures related to artistic work. The empirical data consists of biographical interviews with 20 BAS students from Sweden and Denmark and the interpretations draw on theoretical perspectives from cultural sociology, pragmatic sociology of critique and interactionist identity theory. The study identifies traces of, and intersections between, "bohemian" and "entrepreneurial" identity types in the students' ways of adapting their future professional identities to future work in the context of public institutional theatres. However, through also critically challenging symbolically constructed meaning structures related to artistic work and identity, the study proposes three alternative identity ideals: "the flexible creative", "the socially conscious performing artist" and "the sustainable artist worker".
This paper employs corpus-assisted discourse analysis to examine how culture is framed in a corpus of EU cultural policy documents (2000-2023). Drawing on the concept of framing as a discursive mechanism that shapes and promotes specific interpretations, the study identifies dominant frames emerging from the analysed texts. Using Sketch Engine's keyword extraction and concordance analysis, six dominant frames are identified: EU cultural governance, culture through joint funding and regional cooperation, culture as a strategic tool, Europeanisation, cultural heritage and preservation, and culture for green transition. The analysis reveals these frames as rhetorically complementary, serving to construct a cohesive meta-narrative organised around cultural instrumentalisation. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate the interplay between ideological continuity and responsiveness to evolving priorities, framing culture as a multifunctional policy tool serving broader EU policy goals.
The article explores how craft makers navigate the tension between creative autonomy and market demands within the current economic and cultural policy frameworks. Drawing on an ethnographic study conducted in Berlin in 2024, it analyses the identities, values and everyday practices of self-employed makers operating micro-enterprises. The findings show that makers prioritise quality, skill, and sustainable self-employment over scalable growth, and rely on collaborative networks to sustain their practices in the absence of targeted policy support. The study argues that craft makers should be recognised not only as economic actors, but also as cultural and ethical agents who preserve tacit knowledge and contribute to cultural heritage. By highlighting the misalignment between makers' practices and existing policy frameworks, the article proposes integrating craft more fully into cultural policy agendas, outlining the implications for improving institutional recognition and support.
