A thought-provoking anthology of essays on the value of the humanities, covering a wide range of topics from theology and architecture through to media studies and anthropology.
Why should governments invest public money funding research into ancient Greek tragedy, literary value, philosophical conundrums or the aesthetics of design? Does such research deliver 'value for money' and 'public benefit'? Such questions have become especially pertinent in the UK in recent years, in the context of discussions about 'economic impact' and 'knowledge transfer'. In this book a group of distinguished humanities researchers, all working in Britain, but publishing research of international importance, reflect on the public value of their discipline. The essays are passionate, sometimes polemical, often witty and consistently thought-provoking, covering a range of humanities disciplines from theology and architecture through to media studies and anthropology.
Contributors include- Jonathan Bate, Mary Beard, Mike Parker Pearson, Robert Hampson, John Wolffe, Jurgen Zimmerer, Vanessa Toulmin, Francis O'Gorman, Iain Borden, Deborah Howard, Stephen Daniels, Ben Cowell, Matthew Johnson, Catherine Brace, Christopher Breward, Mike Press, Richard Howells, April McMahon, John Joseph, Ronan McDonald, Chris Gosden, Nicholas Davey.
