News from Members
Biographical note and 2 items submitted by Lluis Bonet (Barcelona)
Aleksandar Brkic, ECURES Board Member and one of the three Compendium authors from Serbia, is leaving his country to take over his new job as Professor for Cultural Management at Lasalle College of the Arts in Singapore. We wish lots of success!
In the context of a Europe-wide research project, interesting data about the artistic, financial, cooperation, human resources and strategies from 390 music festivals in 15 different countries are being compared. November 19-21, 2013 in Lille (France), the book with the final results will be presented. Those interested to be an active part of this conference please contact: administration@francefestivals.com
The new University of Barcelona Graduate program on Performing Arts and Cultural Events Management, held in English (30 European credits), is a blended learning course with 3 intensive weeks in Barcelona (November – December 5th 2013) and two e-learning periods before and after these dates. More: www.ub.edu/cultural/en
New Publications
No Copyright?
ECURES member Joost Smiers together with Marieke van Schijndel recently published the book: "NO COPYRIGHT. Vom Machtkampf der Kulturkonzerne um das Urheberrecht". At present, the publication is available only in German, an English version is planned. It can be ordered at 9.90 EUR from www.alexander-verlag.com (ISBN 978-3-89581-275-0).
Which system could - better than the existing copyright law - protect the interests of numerous artists as well as the general public in the public domain, a public sphere of creativity and knowledge?
The authors plead for radical solutions, including the abolition of copyright, a strategy of social change and, above all, a regulation of present market conditions. A true market should be created, delimiting the forces that dominate it, at present. As a result, they envisage: a colorful, diverse and creative environment which gives many stakeholders a chance while cutting down on the power of controlling monopolies and corporate giants.
Smiers and van Schijndel argue that a copyright-free system can work on a commercial basis and show, amongst other issues, how it would apply to the trade with information, patents, medicines and food.
The CRIA Process
A study of ECURES member Jörg Michael Schindler calls for regular ‘Culture-Related Impact Assessments’ (CRIA) on European, national and regional levels: "Kulturpolitik und Recht 3.0", Köln/Cologne 2011 (ISBN 978-3-930395-87-3, order here). With a new, extended English summary of its background and main components, published in the Compendium, the author intends to make this legal and administrative model accessible to a wider European and international public.
ECURES Members' Assembly 2012 in Helsinki
The 10th Members' Assembly of the European Association of Cultural Researchers e.V. (ECURES) took place 29 June 2012 at the House of the Estates in Helsinki (Finland). As practised before in Strasbourg, Berlin, Amsterdam, Budapest and Zurich, the Assembly was held in connection with the annual Meeting of Compendium experts.
The Assembly was attended by 20 members; they discussed, inter alia (see Minutes here):
- The role of ECURES in the governance of the ERICarts Institute and new activities;
- Supporting and protective functions for the Compendium community of experts;
- Participation in the design and editing of the new CWE HOTopics debate space; and
- A Forum of Young Researchers, to be held at the next Assembly in Vienna, 2013.
The Assembly admitted 32 new members (see Membership list) and elected a new Board, with Vesna Čopič (Ljubljana) as the new ECURES President. It thanked the previous members for their work, in particular Ritva Mitchell, who had acted as President for almost two decades and who wanted to step down due to her many other commitments and in order to support the current generation change in the Association.
The day before, June 28th, ECURES had offered a cocktail on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of first initiatives in Finland that inspired the creation of the Association and, a decade later, of the ERICarts Institute.
