Doctoral Dissertation Research: Understanding Value in the Cultural Economy

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Though economic value is often measured by the price of a collectible work of art or the number of music recordings sold, the cultural value of these objects is multifaceted and more difficult to measure. This dissertation seeks to understand the determinants of cultural-economic value through the study of music and fine art. The central empirical question asks how industry actors know which objects have more or less value than others in cultural markets. Through in-depth interviews with curators, talent buyers, artists, and musicians, this study will collect data on the self-reported value judgments of respondents, with attention to the construction of knowledge in the cultural economy. In addition, ethnographic observation of the sound culture industries in New York City will form a comparative case with current research in Chicago to understand the relationship between participants' theories of value and practices of valuation. Interpretive analysis of these coupled data sets will be used to generate original economic theory about economic value in addition to the empirical findings in this particular case. The overall goal is to develop a more complete theory of economic value that takes into account cultural evaluations in addition to quantitative economic evaluations of prices and quantity.