Nanna Kann-Rasmussen

• Presentation
• CV
• Research outputs
• Prizes
• Press/Media
• Activities
• Most downloaded

My research regards cultural institutions and cultural policy. I am particularly interested in the relationship between cultural institutions and society. This relation affects how cultural institutions legitimize themselves, the leadership and organization of the cultural institutions and how they change. In recent years, I have contributed to this research agenda by scrutinizing how cultural institutions (such as libraries, archives, and museums) have emphasized their users, social relevance, their ability to collaborate and how some employees in these institutions even describe their activities as activism. Furthermore, I have contributed to the research agenda on legitimation work of cultural institutions by showing that display of projects, networks and “social good” now dominate LAM-institutions’ self-justifications as much as their emphasis on quality. Recently I have introduced theories of New Public Governance (NPG - a governance regime influenced by collaborative innovation as the answer to society’s problems as opposed to New Public Management) to the field of cultural policy, to find out what NPG entails for the rationales and justifications of cultural policy. Furthermore, I want to initiate a discussion about what possible new rationales and justifications entails for the way we understand the field of [instrumental] cultural policy today.

Current research project

From september 2024-juni 2029 I am leading the research project Post- neutrality in Libraries, Archives and Museums, which is supported by the Velux foundation.

Primary fields of research

Cultural Policy

Cultural Leadership

Pragmatic cultural sociology

Cultural institutions, especially LAMs (Libraries, Archives and Museums)

Teaching

I teach the masters programme in Information Studies in courses on cultural policy, cultural institutions and cultural mediation.  

Selected publications

1. Published

   When librarians speak up: Justifications for and legitimacy implications of librarians’ engagement in social movements

   Kann-Rasmussen, Nanna, 2023, In: Journal of Documentation (JDOC). 79, 1, p. 36-51

   Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

2. Published

   Paradoxical autonomy in cultural organisations: An analysis of changing relations between cultural organisations and their institutional environment, with examples from libraries, archives and museums

   Kann-Rasmussen, Nanna & Rasmussen, Casper Hvenegaard, 2020, In: The International Journal of Cultural Policy. 27, 5, p. 636-649 20 p.

   Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

3. Published

   For samfundets skyld: Kulturlederes forestillinger om legitimitet og omverden

   Kann-Rasmussen, Nanna, 2016, In: Nordisk Kulturpolitisk Tidskrift. 19, 2

   Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

4. Published

   Cultural participation in Europe: Shared problem or shared problematisation?

   Stevenson, D., Kann-Rasmussen, Nanna & Balling, Gitte, 2015, In: International Journal of Cultural Policy. p. 1-18 18 p.

   Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review