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Arts management and cultural policy research have a polyphonic nature. While the majority of the research in the field rests on social science and humanities traditions, its close relationship with practitioners often shapes its research in the direction of what one might refer to as an applied field. The aim of this chapter is to describe and analyze the different sources of this polyphonic research, charting the different institutional settings of knowledge production. Considering that institutions are context-specific, as they are linked to the social, economic, and political history of the country, this chapter focuses on the USA. Each section illustrates the characteristics — purposes and logics of inquiry — of the four institutional settings that produce the current knowledge for and about the field: academia, arts organizations, government, and a collection of private organizations. The chapter concludes with a proposal for the development of an ethics of research that would foster a community of practice geared towards cultivating an inclusive view of the knowledge produced in these different institutional settings, but serving the same field.

DOI: 10.1057/9781137460929_9

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