In 2002, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) launched a large-scale research programme to explore recent transformations in the cultural field and develop new theoretical concepts and frameworks for the humanities. Transformations in Arts and Culture ran for almost a decade and consisted of seven sub-programmes involving over 30 senior and junior scholars at different universities in the Netherlands. In addition, an art-science programme CO-OPs was set up in which artists and academics explored how art and academe could mutually benefit from each other's practices and ideas.

The focus of the Transformations programme was on three interlinked processes that have profoundly reshaped the field of art and culture during the past decades: globalization, commercialization and technologization. The aim was to research how these processes have manifested themselves over time (diachronically), through space (synchronically), and in various media. What new modes of communication, interaction and community building have emerged since the digital revolution? How do new manifestations of art and culture give meaning to our existence? What tools and concepts do we need to better understand processes of social and cultural change? How can existing disciplines within the humanities enrich and strengthen each other by working together in interdisciplinary projects? These questions were at the heart of the programme.

Ten years later, the central issues of the Transformations in Art and Culture programme have been further elaborated and the research of the participants has materialized not only in the present volume but in numerous monographs, Ph.D. dissertations, edited volumes, and articles, as well as in exhibitions and art projects. At this point, José van Dijck and Robert Zwijnenberg, two members of the preparatory committee that designed the Transformations programme on behalf of the NWO, were invited to look back and discuss its impact on arts and humanities research. Taking their initial ideals and the actual output as stepping stones, they assess the programme's achievements but also look forward to address the relevance of the humanities today and in the near future.