The six reviews in this issue come from authors whose home countries include Finland, Germany, Ireland, China and the USA. Such heterogeneity in the field of cultural policy is both reflected and challenged by the subject matter of their respective pieces. The importance of social relations – the relational work of cultural entrepreneurs, leaders and producers – is shown in the diversity of cultural entrepreneurship practice in Annette Naudin's book, reviewed by Janet Merkel, and reflects on Jo Caust's argument that contemporary arts practice is diffusing power in cultural production. Her book is considered by Ali Fitzgibbon. Anamik Saha's powerful critique of race and the cultural industries, discussed here by both Sirkka Komulainen and Stevie Marsden, suggests that cultural production constructs and re-presents race and racialised identities in the media and culture we consume. Carole Rosenstein's analysis of cultural policy development in the USA and Rong Yue Ming and Justin O'Connor's in China, respectively reviewed by Jennifer L. Novak-Leonard and Xiao Lu, evidence the diffuse values, historical context, institutions and interventions at play in the global field.
