Energy! The power of audience research as field, practice and critique

This contribution is the introduction to the Cultural Commons special issue on ‘Energy! The Power of Audience Research as Field, Practice and Critique’, edited by Joke Hermes, Linda Kopitz and Helen Wood. Through the lens of ‘energy’, this special issue explores audience research as a field, practice and critique that both demands and harnesses energy. Between tensions, currents and changes, in light of both rapid development and enduring understandings, we – as audience researchers – are constantly challenged to bring new energies to our research, while at the same time being energised by these challenges. In this introduction – as well as across the different contributions – we draw on energy as a term that implies reciprocity and collectivity. Rather than thinking about a ‘return to’, or ‘return of’, audience research, this special issue both reflects on developments in the field of audience research and speculates about the future.