Most articles in this issue originate from presentations at the thirtieth 2004 Social Theory, Politics and the Arts Conference which took place in Virginia in October 2004 and which dealt with the development of cultural policy, cultural theory and arts administration practices in the United States. These six contributions touch on the benefits of arts participation, the growing importance of culturally specific communities, public funding, support for individual artists, emerging advocacy and lobbying challenges, and cultural diplomacy in times of the US war on terror.

Not part of the conference papers is the last commentary by Albro; he argues that the new UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity missed the opportunity to clarify the meaning, importance and true impact of the concept of cultural diversity, as it is silent about the relationship to identity.