Cultural Economy in the Kitchen
Cultural Economy in the Kitchen is a podcast from the Journal of Cultural Economy editorial collective, hosted by Philip Roscoe of the University of St Andrews Business School and Addie McGowan of the University of Salford Business School. Each episode brings together academics, authors, reviewers, and comment writers to explore the culturalization of the economy and the economization of culture. The hosts and guests discuss cutting-edge scholarship with flair, sparkle, and occasional culinary metaphors. Listeners can expect fresh insights into how economic and cultural life intersect, served up in a conversational format.
Episodes
Marketing Cultures
What do marketers actually do? In the final episode of Season 1 of Cultural Economy in the Kitchen, Addie McGowan and Philip Roscoe journey into the strange world of marketing, a place of persuasion, data, and corporate storytelling. Accompanied by Kevin Mellet and Robert Cluley, they explore marketing as a sprawling social practice built from signs, statistics, management tools, ethnographic hunc
Climate crisis, market opportunity?
In this episode of Cultural Economy in the Kitchen, Philip Roscoe and Addie McGowan explore the climate driven convergence of crisis, finance, and technological optimism. They are joined by Dr Robert Dorschel, Professor Daniel Beunza, and Dr Matthias Taeger, to examine how climate change has been transformed into a market opportunity and a new financial logic. Robert unpacks the rise of green tech
Cruel optimism and the elusive academic good life
Addie McGowan and Philip Roscoe shine the Cultural Economy in the Kitchen lamp on the university itself, exploring the changing cultures of academic work in an age of metrics, precarity, and exhaustion. Joined by Dr Thais Franca and Dr Ming-Te Peng, the conversation traces how neoliberal reforms have reshaped academic life across different national contexts. In the post-COVID pessimism in Portugue
Artisan ambiguities and the price of ethical production
Craft promises authenticity, care, and resistance to the anonymous churn of mass production. But what happens when ethical making becomes a luxury few can afford? Or when it's not possible to disentangle craft from commerce, if indeed it ever was? In this episode of Cultural Economy in the Kitchen, Philip Roscoe and Addie McGowan explore the ambiguities of craft with Dr Steve Marotta and Dr Ola Be
Platinum tickets and secret concerts: how platforms rewired live music
What does it mean to buy a concert ticket in an age of algorithms and platforms? In this episode of Cultural Economy in the Kitchen Philip Roscoe and Addie McGowan explore the hidden architectures of the concert economy with Dr Victor Pires and Dr Loïc Riom. Victor unpacks Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing as a powerful market device, where algorithms shape demand, organise time, and offer a platinum
In mistrust we trust
What happens to trust when it goes digital? Could mistrust be more important? In this episode of Cultural Economy in the Kitchen, Philip Roscoe and Addie McGowan are joined by Kristoffer Albris, James Maguire, and Matt Spencer to explore the strange, shifting world of digital (mis)trust. From platforms and crypto to cyber security certification, mistrust emerges not as a failure but as a force tha
Debt everywhere, debt everlasting: the rise of permanent obligation
From student loans to buy-now-pay-later, we are always already indebted. Debt has become an engine of everyday life, reshaping how we study, shop, work, and imagine our futures. In this episode of Cultural Economy in the Kitchen, Philip Roscoe and Addie McGowan ask what it means to live in a world where indebtedness has become a permanent condition. Addie and Philip explore the cultural economies
Sampling wealth, streaming poverty: the soundtrack of global capitalism
Music hasn’t escaped the grip of capital. In this episode of Cultural Economy in the Kitchen, Philip Roscoe and Addie McGowan unpack the collision of sound and finance with guests Paul Rekret and Elizabeth (Betsy) Carter. Paul takes us back to the glossy excess of late‑90s Bad Boy Records, where hip‑hop’s “sensuous abstraction” of wealth mirrored the industry’s own slide into financialised logic,
Empire’s ghostly afterlives: from financial markets to creative industries
What do ghosts, empires, and financial capital have in common? In this episode of Cultural Economy in the Kitchen, Philip Roscoe and Addie McGowan speak with Clea Bourne, Paul Gilbert, and Eleanor Newbigin to explore how colonial legacies haunt contemporary financial systems and cultural policy. Clea and Paul unpack the “ghostly infrastructures” underpinning global finance, revealing how willed fo
The calculated child: The emotional-economic logics of parenting
What happens when parenting becomes an economic project? In this episode of Cultural Economy in the Kitchen, Philip Roscoe and Addie McGowan chat with sociologists Nina Bandelj and Joe Deville about how parenting is shaped by markets, metrics, and digital platforms. Nina discusses parental investment, emotional economies, and the pressures they create on parents trying to do the best for their kid
When the planet hits the balance sheet
Climate crisis meets capital in Cultural Economy in the Kitchen: Professor Philip Roscoe and Dr Addie McGowan explore what happens when climate change collides with the world of finance. They speak with Dr Stine Engen and Professor Kristin Asdal about how climate issues are transformed into calculable financial risks through everyday tools, documents, and risk‑work in the financial sector. The con
Digital Eating
In this episode of Cultural Economy in the Kitchen, hosts Dr Addie McGowan and Professor Philip Roscoe explore the emerging world of digital food. Joined by Dr Tanja Schneider and Dr Jeremy Brice, editors of a JCE special issue on 'digital eating', they unpack how apps, platforms and data are reshaping what eating means as a cultural and social practice. From digital veganism to food safety, exper
Crypto imaginaries, crypto escapes
In this episode of Cultural Economy in the Kitchen, the podcast from the Journal of Cultural Economy, hosts Dr. Addie McGowan and Professor Philip Roscoe explore the fascinating world of crypto imaginaries—how cryptocurrencies embody - quite literally, encode - cultural, political, and economic visions of the future. Joining them are Dr. Lana Swartz, Dr. Andreu Belsunces, and Dr. Kobe De Keere, wh
The Design episode! Cultural economies of design
In this episode, we dive into the fascinating world of design and explore how it shapes contemporary economic life. Ulises Navarro Aguiar and Karl Palmas explain how businesses use design not just to create products, but to imagine and speculate about uncertain futures. Later, Koray Caliskan takes us inside the world of digital platforms, showing how design underpins their power and influence. Fro
The scent of Musk: Power, charisma and paranoia in Silicon Valley
We dive into the cultural economies of the tech bros, from Peter Thiel to Elon Musk. Hosts Dr. Addie McGowan and Professor Philip Roscoe welcome Dr. Carla Ibled and Dr. Dominik Zelinski to talk about their popular Journal of Cultural Economy articles. Carla explores the founder as hero and victim, drawing on Freud and Lacan to reveal Silicon Valley’s messianic fantasies. Dominik examines Musk’s ch
From Walkman to Poly-Crisis: What is cultural economy?
Welcome to the first episode of Cultural Economy in the Kitchen, the new podcast from the Journal of Cultural Economy. Hosts Professor Philip Roscoe and Dr Addie McGowan dive into the origins and evolution of cultural economy with Professor Liz McFall and Dr Toby Bennett. From early workshops and the Walkman to today’s poly-crises, they explore what cultural economy means now and why it matters. P
Coming soon, to a kitchen near you
It's coming soon, to a kitchen near you: the new Cultural Economy in the Kitchen podcast from the Journal of Cultural Economy editorial collecteive. With Dr Addie McGowan and Professor Philip Roscoe. Don't forget to subscribe!
