Call for Papers

Special Issue of the journal Culture Crossroads with a focus on social and economic impact assessment in the cultural and creative industries.

Culture Crossroads is an open access international peer-reviewed journal published by the Institute of Arts and Cultural Studies of the Latvian Academy of Culture. The goal of Culture Crossroads is to develop and expand theoretical and methodological approaches to the research of art and creativity with an emphasis on the potential of a variety of disciplines and interdisciplinarity.
A special issue of the journal is planned to gather the papers presented at the thematic session "How to Make it Visible? Assessing Social And Economic Impact In Creative And Cultural Industries" within the framework of the conference series "Culture Crossroads XVIII" of the Latvian Academy of Culture (LAC) that took place on 8 November 2024 in Riga, Latvia, as well as other (non-conference) articles related to the theme of the issue.
In the context of public investment into culture and arts, an ever-present issue is that of impact measurement. The issue of impacts is often oversimplified, because of the need to express non-linear processes in linear, monetary terms (especially for policy purposes). On the one hand, there is a growing demand for evidence-based policy evaluation in this field (Evans, 2007). On the other hand, researchers have started a broader debate regarding intrinsic versus instrumental impacts of culture (Seaman, 2020) leading to the debate on cultural value (Belfiore, 2018). Researchers also acknowledge that there is a lot of ‘bad’ or unverifiable evidence of impact in cultural policy documents (Belfiore, 2022), or they warn about ‘hyperinstrumentalisation’ of cultural policy where claims about the value of culture are irrelevant to political actors (Hadley, Grey, 2017). 
However, the need for impact measurement, in particular the identification of impacts that could demonstrate the social value of culture in a more persuasive way, is an ongoing academic debate. Researchers are discussing more effective approaches that have to be designed to capture the various impacts of the cultural and creative sectors, since overwhelming evidence is accumulating on the non-linearity of processes both in the cultural and creative sectors and in the society.
The aim of the Special Issue of Culture Crossroads titled “From Invisible to Visible: Assessing the Social and Economic Impact in Creative And Cultural Industries” is to develop new and test existing theoretical and empirical approaches to social and economic impact assessment in cultural and creative industries (CCIs). Researchers from different fields are invited to present articles on methodological approaches that can be used to study the impacts of the CCIs on the sustainable development of society and the country. We invite contributions with a particular focus on the impact of CCIs on quality of life, well-being, health, education, social inclusion, environment, climate and innovation. We especially welcome submissions that discuss methodological challenges, approaches, providing a critical look at methodological approaches that are tested by researchers, and also theoretical debates based on literature reviews.
Articles should be submitted in English and they must not be previously published or submitted for publication elsewhere. The recommended length of the article is up to 45 000 characters without spaces, and must comply with the Guidelines for Authors (information on the guidelines and requirements can be accessed here). Prior to submission, registration and creation of a user profile is required.
The deadline for submissions: 10 February 2025. The articles should be submitted through the electronic system of the journal.
The journal is indexed in: SCOPUS; EBSCO (Humanities Source Ultimate); ERIH PLUS; ULRICH'S; Central and Eastern European Online Library (CEEOL).
The edition will be prepared in the framework of the State Research programme “Cultural and creative ecosystem of Latvia as a resource of resilience and sustainability”/CERS (VPP-MM-LKRVA-2023/1-0001).
Contacts:
Baiba Tjarve baiba.tjarve@lka.edu.lv 
Ieva Zemīte ieva.zemite@lka.edu.lv 

Authors of conference "Kultūras krustpunkti (Culture Crossroads)" papers are invited to submit articles on their research results to one of two scientific journals published by the Latvian Academy of Culture: in English, for an international audience, "Culture Crossraods", or in Latvian, for a local community of researchers and practitioners, "Kultūras un mākslas pētījumi". Deadline for submission: 10 February 2025. Articles should be submitted via the journal's electronic system.
Articles must not have been previously published or submitted for publication elsewhere. Articles should be between 20 000 and 45 000 characters in length, including spaces, and should comply with the Guidelines for Authors. Before submission, you must register and create a user profile at www.culturecrossroads.lv.
Culture Croassroads is indexed by SCOPUS; EBSCO (Humanities Source Ultimate); ERIH PLUS; ULRICH'S; Central and Eastern European Online Library (CEEOL).

Submission

All articles should comply with the ‘Guidelines for Authors’. You can find the information on the guidelines and requirements here. Prior to submission, registration and creation of a user profile is required. Articles should be submitted in English and they must not be previously published or submitted for publication elsewhere. 

Should you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact editorial assistant Lote Katrīna Cērpa: lote.katrina.cerpa@lka.edu.lv

The call for papers is announced at least once a year in November/December. 

For technical inquiries, please contact the system administrator, Gundega Teilane, at gundega.teilane@rta.lv