Enterprising Culture : Discourses on Entrepreneurship in Nordic Cultural Policy

Abstract

The sphere of arts and culture has been going through a process of economic reevaluation during the last decades. Parallel to the rise of a creative economy discourse, which both in its political and scientific forms has highlighted the economic significance of culture and arts, entrepreneurship has become a feature in the cultural policy of many countries. In this paper, we compare how entrepreneurship is established and used as a concept in cultural policy discourses in two Nordic countries, Norway and Finland. Through analyzing policy plans and documents, we discuss what is seen as positive cultural or artistic activity in the framework of entrepreneurship, and we identify the eligible cultural subjects of this discourse.