Work in this theme draws on expertise from across the Centre in cultural policy and media cultures to reflect on the intensifying relationship between the fields of ‘culture’ and ‘digital’, exemplified by the addition of 'digital' to the remit of the UK's DCMS in 2017. Creative industries researchers have established the applicability and implications of digital technologies to solving the specific challenges of the cultural sector. Centre examples include Dr Chris Bilton's work on The Disappearing Product and Dr David Wright's reflection on 'computational' cultural policy studies . Two decades into this century, these technologies are firmly embedded in social, economic, and creative practices. They inform the strategic priorities of governments, facilitate new forms of commerce, new networked forms of political engagement and more diffuse models of artistic and creative production. They have also been associated with the emergence of significant policy challenges. The disruptive models of tech companies are implicated in undermining public trust, to contributing to the emergence of precarious modes of work and facilitating the further rise of ‘surveillance’ capitalism.

Digital technologies shape culture how culture is produced, how it is accessed, consumed, valued and how it is managed. They also increasingly shape culture in its broader sense in relation to the shared values, meanings, and behaviours within national spaces, mediating how people live with and relate to one another. Building on a panel organised at the 2020 ICCPR conference with contributions from Dr David Wright, Dr Clive Gray and Dr Carolina Bandinelli, work in this theme explores how the digital is changing the problem of culture for policymakers.