Skip to main content

Dr. Robin Kuchar

21335 Lüneburg, Universitätsallee 1, C5.210
Fon +49.4131.677-1306, robin.kuchar@leuphana.de
Research associate, Professorship for Sociology of the Arts
Research associate, Professur für Soziologie der Organisation und der Kultur

Table of contents for this page

Vita

Robin completed his MA studies in Applied Cultural Science in early 2009 by finishing his thesis about Popular Music and Globalization.

In 2017, he completed his phd thesis about the development and transformation of DIY based music venues. Carrying out three case studies of DIY based music clubs in Hamburg-St. Pauli, the analysis focuses changing spatial strategies, identities and self-conceptions of the clubs within the spheres of local scenes, the city and the Music Industries. The related book 'Musikclubs zwischen Szene Stadt und Music Industries. Autonomie, Vereinnahmung, Abhängigkeit' was published in 2020.

Currently, Robin works as Post-Doc Researcher and Lecturer at Institute of Sociology and Cultural Organization. His main research interests are Culture and the City, DIY & Underground Scenes, Production of Culture, Music Industries, Livemusic & Music Venues and Cultural Participation.

He is co-series editor of 'Urban Music Studies', member of IASPM, KISMIF and co-initiator of the Urban Music Studies Scholars Network (www.urbanmusicstudies.org).

Apart from Academia, Robin worked as project manager for the ‚Hamburg Day of Music 2012‘ (NGO) and for the mission orientated research project ‘Who is Musicking in Hamburg?’ (2009), initiated by the municipality of Hamburg. For years, he was/ is organizing concerts, running a DIY Music Label and doing live-sound engineering.

Projects

  1. TrICo Subprojekt - Community Art and Culture
    Timon Beyes (Project manager, academic) , Boukje Cnossen (Project manager, academic) , Robin Kuchar (Project staff) , Lana Bartusch (Project manager, academic) , Maximilian Schellmann (Project staff) , Susan Börner (Project staff)
    →

    Project: Transfer (R&D project)

  2. Until Covid-19 do us apart. Music Scenes in Lockdown
    Robin Kuchar (Project staff) , Volker Kirchberg (Project staff) , Alenka Barber-Kersovan (Project staff)
    →

    Project: Research

  3. Groove the City 2020
    Volker Kirchberg (Project manager, academic) , Robin Kuchar (Project staff) , Alenka Barber-Kersovan (Project staff) , Lisa Gaupp (Project staff)
    →

    Project: Scientific event

  4. Groove the City 2018
    Volker Kirchberg (Project manager, academic) , Robin Kuchar (Project staff) , Alenka Barber-Kersovan (Project staff) , Lisa Gaupp (Project staff)
    →

    Project: Scientific event

  5. Urban Music Studies Scholars´Network
    Robin Kuchar (Project manager, academic) , Volker Kirchberg (Project manager, academic) , Lisa Gaupp (Project manager, academic) , Alenka Barber-Kersovan (Project manager, academic)

    Project: Research

View all projects

Publications

Books and anthologies

  1. Urban Music Studies - Theories and Methods
    Robin Kuchar (Editor) , Jess Reia (Editor) , Alenka Barber-Kersovan (Editor) , 2026

    Research output: Books and anthologies › Collected editions and anthologies › Research

  2. Musikclubs zwischen Szene, Stadt und Music Industries: Autonomie, Vereinnahmung, Abhängigkeit.
    Robin Kuchar (Author) , 2020 1 ed. Wiesbaden , 314 p.

    Research output: Books and anthologies › Book › Research

  3. Music City: Musikalische Annäherungen an die kreative Stadt
    Volker Kirchberg (Editor) , Robin Kuchar (Editor) , Alenka Barber-Kersovan (Editor) , 2014 1. ed. Bielefeld , 344 p.

    Research output: Books and anthologies › Collected editions and anthologies › Research

View all publications

Journal contributions

  1. Music Scenes and Cultural Ecosystems: Alternative Practices between 'Official Policy Recognition' and 'Post-Pandemic Austerity'
    Robin Kuchar (Author) , 09.09.2025 , in: DIY, Alternative Cultures & Society, 3, 2 , p. 139-152 , 14 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review

  2. From DIY avantgardism to icons of German New Wave:: Einstürzende Neubauten and the legacy of ‘Ingenious Dilletants’
    Robin Kuchar (Author) , 01.01.2024 , in: Rock Music Studies, 11, 1 , p. 71-88 , 18 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review

  3. Vom stadträumlichen Pionier zur Kulturstätte inmitten der Pandemie. Musikclubs als (sozial-)räumliche Akteure urbaner Musikökosysteme
    Robin Kuchar (Author) , 01.06.2023 , in: Standort, 47, 2 , p. 127-135 , 9 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Transfer › peer-review

  4. The “First Ones to Close and Last Ones to Re-Open”: Music Venues, COVID-19 and the Handling of the Crisis
    Robin Kuchar (Author) , Maxine Frey (Author) , Julia Gooß (Author) , Tim Mertens (Author) , 22.06.2022 , in: Journal of World Popular Music, 9, 1-2 , p. 170-196 , 27 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review

  5. Music Venues in Transition: States of Autonomy, Dependence and Subcultural Institutionalization
    Robin Kuchar (Author) , 01.01.2020 , in: Todas as Artes, 3, 2 , p. 25-41 , 17 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review

View all publications

Contributions to collected editions/anthologies

  1. Musikclubs und Stadt: Zwischen Underground, urbaner Infrastruktur und ‚subkultureller Institutionalisierung‘
    Robin Kuchar (Author) , 01.01.2026 Münster

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Chapter › Research › peer-review

  2. Musikclubs in der Livemusikökologie: Situation und kulturpolitische Implikationen in Zeiten der Pandemie
    Robin Kuchar (Author) , 20.06.2023 Bielefeld , p. 111-122 , 12 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Transfer › peer-review

  3. Building Scene and Cultural Memory in the Weser Hills.: The Case of Glitterhouse Records and Orange Blossom Special Festival
    Robin Kuchar (Author) , 22.03.2023 Cham , p. 163-178 , 16 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Research › peer-review

  4. Independent Music and Independent Music Scenes.: From DIY led Collectives to Individualized Professionals?
    Robin Kuchar (Author) , 26.01.2023 London , p. 567-592 , 25 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Chapter › Research › peer-review

  5. Changing Identities of DIY based Music Venues? Clubs between Scene-Traditionalism, Assimilation and ‘Subcultural Institutionalization’
    Robin Kuchar (Author) , 01.07.2018 Porto , p. 157-157 , 1 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Published abstract in conference proceedings › Research › peer-review

View all publications

Activities

  1. Evaluating ecological thinking for music and the arts – from blackboxing towards a ‘serious’ analytical tool?
    Robin Kuchar (Speaker)
    →

    Activity: Conference Presentations › Research

  2. Theorizing ‘Music Ecosystem’ for Urban Music Studies – from underground to infrastructure
    Robin Kuchar (Speaker)
    →

    Activity: Conference Presentations › Research

  3. Club, Szene und Stadt. Eine Langzeitbetrachtung von Selbstverständnissen und sozialen Umfeldern von Musikclubs
    Robin Kuchar (Speaker)

    Activity: talk or presentation in privat or public events › Education

  4. Scene – Infrastructure – Ecosystem? Challenges of researching cultural production within increasing social complexity
    Robin Kuchar (Speaker)

    Activity: talk or presentation in privat or public events › Research

  5. Thinking music scene outside the scene – between understandings of networks, ecosystem, and infrastructure
    Robin Kuchar (Speaker)
    →

    Activity: Conference Presentations › Research

View all activities

Press / Media

  1. Wenn Kulturangebote fehlen
    1 Media contribution

    Press/Media: Press/Media

  2. Fei­ern junge Neus­ser noch?
    1 time cited

    Press/Media: Press/Media

  3. Warum kleine Kulturorte für die Region wichtig sind
    1 time cited

    Press/Media: Press/Media

  4. Sex und wummernde Bässe: Was im exklusivsten Club Deutschlands wirklich abgeht
    1 time cited

    Press/Media: Press/Media

  5. Zurück zum Thema: Proberäume in Deutschland
    1 time cited

    Press/Media: Press/Media

View all press/media coverage

Courses

Entrepreneurship and Intervention in Organizing Culture
Robin Kuchar
In the course, we will engage with cultural organization from an entrepreneurial and interventionist angle by looking at current challenges, change and potential futures of cultural organizations. Therefore, we will not only look at culture aand processes of change in theory, but will conduct own research along real-life cases using concepts as design thinking or scenarios and ethnographic fieldwork.

Therefore, the first part of the course will set a frame of theoretical and methodological approaches – from the question of cultural entrepreneurs, motivations and future challenges to analytical methods and tools as design-thinking.

The second part of the course will contain field visits and the practical experimentation with tools and academic research, from fields such as management and organization studies, (critical) entrepreneurship studies, and (cultural) sociology.

Within the group-based projects on real life cases conducted, these materials will be used to further theorise, contextualise, and critically reflect on the performativity of entrepreneurial tools and methods. To test their ideas, students will explore a real-life case of a cultural organisation and will be invited to develop entrepreneurial and creative propositions to intervene and enact change.

The course is related to an ongoing research and knowledge-transfer project at Leuphana, the Innovation Community Arts & Culture (see: https://www.leuphana.de/en/partners/innovation-communities/arts-and-culture.html)

Next appointment:
Monday, 2026-10-12 at 14:15
Room: C 3.121 Seminarraum
Theories of the Organization of Arts and Culture
Marie Hoop, Robin Kuchar
Was ist Kulturorganisation? Wie können wir Kultur als einen zentralen Teil unserer Gesellschaft verstehen? Und wie interagieren Kultur, Gesellschaft und Ökonomie?

Das Modul Theorien der Kulturorganisation nimmt dazu das gesamte System aus Produktion (Kreation), Distribution (Vermittlung) und Rezeption (Konsum) von Kultur in den Blick. Neben erster Grundlagen zum 'Cultural Diamond' und zu Prozessen der Kulturproduktion udn Rezeption betrachten wir Ansätze zu Kultur als soziale Entität, zu Austauschprozessen von Kultur und Gesellschaft und zu den Beziehungen von Kultur und Ökonomie - von der Kulturindustriekritik Horckheimer/Adornos zur aktuellen Bedeutung von Kultur im Neoliberalismus.

Neben Beckers Konzept der ArtWorlds und Bourdieus Feldtheorie werden wir Kultur als gesellschaftliches System, Netzwerk und Ökosystem diskutieren, Einflussfaktoren der kulturellen Produktion kennenlernen und die sozialen und ökonomischen Funktionen von Kunst und Kultur - auch für die Organisation unserer Gesellschaft - kritisch hinterfragen.

Dies alles werden wir in einer Kombination aus Vorlesung und Übung erarbeiten.
Next appointment:
Thursday, 2026-10-15 at 09:50
Room: C 12.105 Seminarraum