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This chapter begins with a brief journey through the history of art in order to point out art serves both social and psychological functions and how it is tinged by civilizational and historical context by accumulating layers of purposes and sense from the past times and diverse mind frames. Art produced in the first quarter of the twenty-first century has absorbed the late trends of the twentieth century and has traced and reinforced some paths, especially those in connection to economy (art as a valuable market product) and society (art as statement, critical posture and participatory citizenship). The chapter brings together these ideas with examples showing, on one side, the economic connection of art to the market and mass consumption, while other projects, on the other side, include a politicized facet and activism through self and collective curatorship, participatory art and glocalization of its matters of interest, audiences and social impact.

In this chapter, we focus on the three examples of ‘destructive’ art by contemporary artists Ai Weiwei, Michael Landy and Banksy to unpack issues of dematerialisation. By adopting the lens of object-oriented ontology, we reveal the hidden agency of artworks as objects. We find that artworks are charismatic objects that are alive to infinite possibilities and interpretations. As this meaning changes over time, we argue that any attempt at measuring or pinpointing cultural value is bound to fail. Instead, we suggest a need for further consideration of how art can operate as a hypo-object, presenting us with new perspectives on the world.

Motivated by the need to reflect upon the role of entrepreneurship in the economy and society, we seek to understand entrepreneurship as having the potential to “produce” new possibilities for living when departing from a critical awareness. We consider existing critical entrepreneurship research as necessary but insufficient in adequately bringing about new perspectives of entrepreneurship as it often tends to be a position “against entrepreneurship,” discrediting the phenomenon from the many possible values it may invoke. We suggest affirmative critique (Dey & Steyaert, 2018; Weiskopf & Steyaert, 2009) to “turn critique into creativity,” thus making critique productive and exploring how actual transformation (e.g., alternatives) can be invoked when adopting such a stance.

This chapter focuses on the normative importance of what attitudes our actions express to others. Business is not conducted in a vacuum – rather, it is conducted against a background schema of social meaning. This chapter argues that the public meaning of our actions, what our actions express, is normatively important. The piece imports familiar norms regarding expressions from interpersonal morality to business ethics, such as those surrounding insult, blame, and gratitude. It argues that many of ethicists’ gripes across a range of business ethics topics – from disproportionate compensation to immoral investing – can fruitfully be analyzed from an expressive perspective.

According to the UN High Commission on Refugees, over 82 million people are currently displaced globally and of those nearly 25 million are refugees. Every community in the United States – urban, suburban, and rural – is shaped by newcomers seeking safety, opportunity, and self-improvement. Libraries are often the place that feels most welcoming to refugees and newcomers, making them well positioned to offer relevant and impactful programs and services to these communities. Using the International Federation of Library Associations’ (IFLA) conceptual rubric of sanctuary, storehouse, gateway, and bridge, my research explores a variety of programs and services deployed by libraries to address the needs of refugee and newcomer populations. Based on fieldwork in the United States, the Netherlands, and Germany, this chapter describes how libraries impact refugees and newcomers in decisive and meaningful ways. From informal gatherings to national government collaborations of digital content, libraries provide an array of compassionate, effective, scalable interventions for newcomers. Such interventions also positively impact the non-displaced communities in which they operate, fostering deeper connections between newcomers and their communities. Library services to refugees and newcomers provide a broad collective impact in the global crisis of displacement and belonging.