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This collection of essays by scholars with expertise in a range of fields, cultural professionals and policy makers explores different ways in which the arts and humanities contribute to dealing with the challenges of contemporary society in ways that do not rely on simplistic and questionable notions of socio-economic impact as a proxy for value.

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What is the value of the arts and humanities today? This question points to a long and extensively discussed dilemma. Eleonora Belfiore and Anna Upchurch have compiled a collection of original essays that offer a novel approach to tackling this difficult question. These contributions offer examples that show that, rather than relying on the narrowly utilitarian notion of ´research impact´ that has developed within current educational policies and debates, it may be more appropriate to look at the ways in which arts and humanities research is already engaged in collaborative endeavours, both within academia and beyond, in order to address the big ethical, political, technological and environmental challenges of contemporary life. The contributors are scholars from diverse backgrounds, cultural and business professionals as well as policy makers from both the UK and the US. The wealth and diversity of perspectives and experiences they bring to the consideration of the place and role of the arts and humanities in contemporary society allows for a refreshed debate that does not rely on simplistic and questionable notions of socio-economic impact as a proxy for value.

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Introduction: Reframing the ´Value´ Debate for the Humanities; Eleonora Belfiore and Anna Upchurch PART I: THE HUMANITIES AND THEIR ´IMPACT´ 1. The "Rhetoric of Gloom" vs. the Discourse of Impact in the Humanities: Stuck in a Deadlock?; Eleanora Belfiore 2. Speaking out in a Digital world: Humanities Values, Humanities Processes; Jan Parker PART II: UTILITY VS. VALUE 3. The Futility of the Humanities; Michael Bérubé 4. Fahrenheit 451 - The higher Philistinism; Jim McGuigan 5. Speaking of Impact... Languages and the Utility of the Humanities; David Looseley PART III: THE HUMANITIES AND INTERDISCIPLINARITY 6. The Histories of Medicine: Toward an Applied History of Medicine; Howard I. Kushner and Leslie S. Leighton 7. Productive Interactions: Geography and the Humanities; Connie Johnston PART IV: MEANING-MAKING AND THE MARKET 8. Museums and the Search for Meaning in the "Necessary Context" of the Market; Mark O´Neill 9. Values and Sustainability at Penland School of Crafts; Anna Upchurch and Jean McLaughlin PART V: DIGITIZATION, ETHICS AND THE HUMANITIES 10. The Humanities & Open Access Publishing: A New Paradigm of Value?; Eleonora Belfiore 11. Digital Right and the Ethics of Digitization: a Case Study in Technology and Implicit Contracts; Rick McGeer 12. Hacking the Humanities: 21st Century Literacies and the "Becoming-Other" of the Humanities; Mark J.V. Olson Bibliography Index

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