To be a part of this online event, please email Professor Maren Elfert to receive the link.

In this presentation, Dr Jonathan Gross shares insights from his research with arts and cultural organisations working with young people in the London borough of Harrow. He locates these findings within the context of his work on cultural democracy (Gross & Wilson 2018) – which addresses the conceptual and normative underpinnings of UK cultural policy, and explores possibilities beyond the paternalism of ‘excellence and access’ and the neoliberalism of the ‘creative industries’.

Drawing on one particular case study from Harrow, Dr Gross shows the potential for cultural policy to enable conditions in which young people know that their actions matter, and in which they are able to narrate their individual and collective place in the world. These are the key components of hope (Gross 2019).

He concludes by suggesting what would be involved in policymakers taking seriously the potential to support conditions of hope across a variety of locations and scales of cultural practice.

About the speaker

Dr Jonathan Gross is a Research Fellow and Teaching Fellow at King's. His research addresses questions of cultural policy, politics and participation from a variety of perspectives, building on his interdisciplinary background in cultural studies, audience studies, and the history of political thought. At the centre of his research are questions of the role of the state in culture, and the role of culture in human flourishing.

To be a part of this online event, please email Professor Maren Elfert to receive the link.