Return(s) on Investment: The Value of Local Music Scenes

BFE conference presentation (2025). In this paper, we demonstrate that local jurisdictions’ objectives for investing in and promoting music, grounded in differing forms of value, can result in distinct and competing goals. We argue that advancing cultural policy initiatives that recognize and prioritize noneconomic forms of value in local music scenes is an important step in preserving and improving their resilience and sustainability. This collaborative paper is based on ethnographic fieldwork in Dublin, Ireland, and Boston, Massachusetts, USA.