Introduction

Are the humanities still relevant in the twenty-first century? In the context of pervasive economic liberalism and shrinking budgets due to a deep and prolonged recession, the exigency of humanities research for society is increasingly put into question, even within academia. Why should governments finance research that does not generate computable and marketable results? Are the immediate costs worth the alleged long-term social benefits? Similar arguments are also made about the arts and culture more generally – one of the main fields of inquiry in humanities scholarship, past and present. With Contemporary Culture: New Directions in Arts and Humanities Research, we want to show that the humanities matter and in fact offer much-needed insights into contemporary cultural and social practices, thus opening up new ways of understanding the cultural contexts that shape societal transformation.