Per Mangset is a Sociologist of Culture, Professor emeritus at the University of South-Eastern Norway and a senior researcher at Telemark Research Institute. Areas of interest include leisure, cultural professionalisation, arts audience, models and history of cultural policy in Western Europe, international cultural cooperation, artist roles in transition; comparative sports and cultural policy and entrepreneurialism. Mangset has conducted several large research projects on cultural policy. Together with Dorte Skot-Hansen (Denmark), he initiated the International Conference on Cultural Policy Research (ICCPR) and coordinated the Scientific Committee of the ICCPR for several years.