Why pay the Piper? Free-lance Historically Informed Performers, motivation and non-economic value in Germany, 2011-2014

Abstract

The arts are frequently expected to justify their existence by defining their contribution to the economy. This is often expressed as a unit of financial value that is generated in the economy as a result of money invested (Earle et al. 2016).

My PhD research sought to define which non-economic values people in the group ‘involved in HIP’ attributed to the process of HIP by using surveys and interviews. The research project ran in Germany from 2011 to 2014. I broke down the overall group ‘involved in HIP’ into 3 sub-groups: the producers (professionals and students), the consumers (audience members), and the enablers (cultural decision-makers). The results threw light on the subject of cultural entrepreneurship and raised questions regarding happiness despite a negative perspective on precarious working conditions. A closer look at high emotional communication, a value reported by all groups, its correlation with kinaesthetic empathy (Koivunen 2011) and emotional capital (Gendron 2004) suggest that the activity ‘HIP’ and the mind-set that informs it might have a greater impact at a societal level than is generally thought. This in turn suggests that it might be more powerful to justify an arts process such as HIP in terms of its cultural value rather than its economic impact.

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