About

The main goal of this research team is to formalize the activities of an already existing network of employees and students of the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the University of Warsaw, who conduct research in the field of cultural economics. We are creating a stable embedding of cultural economists at the faculty and providing an organizational framework facilitating mutual cooperation in the field of scientific research, didactics, organization of scientific events and international presence. 

Culture, the subject of our research, is defined primarily as art (high culture, if referring to very traditional divisions) and entertainment (respectively: popular culture). Such understanding of “culture” dominates the publishing practice of culture economists at the international level. However, we are also interested in culture understood in an anthropological way, as the totality of human creation (the opposite of such understanding is nature), i.e. an institution type which affects many areas, including the economy.

The economics of culture are distinguished by the subject of research, not methodology. Within this discipline, research is conducted using various methods and perspectives (microeconomic, macroeconomic, econometric approaches, financial analysis, and even qualitative research). Therefore, it comes naturally for the research team to connect people who specialize in different methodologies and are involved with faculty’s different departments.

We are proud to be endorsed by the Association for Cultural Economics International.

ACEP is run by Aleksandra Wiśniewska, Ph.D. from the Department of Microeconomics of the Faculty of Economic Sciences and Wojciech Hardy, Ph.D. from the Department of Technological Transformation of the Faculty of Economic Sciences.

Specific objectives of the team are:

• initiating and carrying out scientific research in the field of cultural economics;
• identifying research topics in the field of cultural economics common among male and female employees from the Faculty of Economic Sciences and supporting transformation of common interests into research projects;
• applying for co-financing of research projects in the field of cultural economics from external funds – participation in grant programs – and implementation of research projects;
• providing forum for discussion on cultural economics at the Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw in Poland and other places in our part of Europe (based on the identification of common problems and traditions of the cultural sector);
• popularization of subject matter related to economics of culture (and entertainment) among students, doctoral students and employees from the Faculty of Economic Sciences by conducting diploma seminars and course classes, a research club, submitting presentations at the faculty forum
• cooperation with other research teams at the Faculty of Economics (particularly on issue of using various tools to study culture from an economic perspective), scientists from other departments, as well as from outside of the University of Warsaw, including the international community of cultural economists;
• active participation in the international scientific circuit of cultural economics by participating in scientific conferences and workshops, including proposing own panels and co-organizing selected editions of conferences and workshops in Warsaw, in particular: conferences and workshops organized by ACEI (biennial conferences; regional workshops, e.g. European Workshop on Applied Cultural Economics);
• cooperation with the public sector – advising on cultural policies at every level of public management;
• cooperation with the cultural and creative sectors – business consulting, research cooperation and collecting data on culture.

The research team is closely related to the Faculty of Economic Sciences, but also works beyond its framework, inviting people from other departments of the University of Warsaw, researchers from other universities in Warsaw and Poland, and cultural economists from Central and Eastern Europe. The economics of culture is an interdisciplinary research field, so we are definitely open to cooperation with representatives of scientific disciplines other than economics (e.g. cultural studies, anthropology, art history, theatre studies, sociology, mathematics).

Meet our Team.