[Commlist] Special Edition on Failure and Cultural Participation - Deadline: Strike Update

The deadline for articles for our special edition on failure is March 
15, 2020.  further details can be found at 
https://www.conjunctions-tjcp.com/index or below. HOWEVER, if you are a 
UK based academic who plans to submit a paper for consideration but this 
date will now be problematic because of the ongoing strike action please 
email (dstevenson /at/ qmu.ac.uk) to let me know and I can agree an extended 
deadline.
Patterns of cultural participation have been the focus of policy 
research for decades. Particularly since the millennium, quantitative 
data, often collected by governments, has established the notion of 
‘non-participation’ as a ‘problem’ that the state needs to address 
(Balling and Kann-Christensen, 2013; Jancovich 2015 Stevenson, 2013, 
Stevenson et al., 2015). Yet despite decades of policies and projects to 
address this and a growing body of research, carried out by consultants 
and academics, celebrating the success of such interventions in 
addressing social inclusion and increasing personal wellbeing, the same 
‘problem’ appears to remain in regard to the diversity of people who 
engage with state supported cultural organisations and activities 
(Warwick Commission, 2015). It has even been claimed that Europe is 
becoming it is becoming a “less cultural continent” (European 
Commission, 2013).

The way in which many projects, organisation and artists are funded and 
evaluated, combined with the state of financial precarity in which a 
large number permanently function, means that stories of failure about 
how cultural participation policies and projects have been enacted are 
largely overlooked and even suppressed in the dominant discourses of 
cultural policy. This limits and reduces the capacity for “social 
learning” (May 1992) which may better facilitate change. Without an 
honest acknowledgement and critically reflective exploration into the 
nature and extent of failure present in the existing projects and 
policies by which cultural participation is supposedly supported, then 
the legitimacy of the status quo will remain difficult to challenge.

This special edition of Conjunctions invites contributions that explore 
the role and place of failure in regard to cultural participation. We 
invite empirical, theoretical and practice informed contributions from 
across a range of disciplines. Topics may include, but need not be 
confined to, the following:

- The value and role of recognising, understanding and learning from 
failure for cultural policymaking OR for cultural objects, artefacts and 
activities
- Defining and recognising failure in cultural participation 
projects/policies
- Cases studies of failure in cultural participation projects/policies
- The politics of failure in cultural participation projects/policies
- The morality and ethics of failure in regard to cultural participation 
projects/policies
- Evaluating and reporting on failure
- The relationship between quality and failure in delivering cultural 
projects
- Framing failure in evaluations
- Discourses of failure and success in cultural policy/cultural practice

Articles should be between 6000-8000 words, including endnotes, captions 
and headings. All articles will undergo blind peer review for final 
selection in the special edition

Any questions related to this special edition can be sent to the guest 
editors:

Dr Leila Jancovich: (l.jancovich /at/ leeds.ac.uk)

Dr David Stevenson: (dstevenson /at/ qmu.ac.uk)

Submissions can be made at: https://tidsskrift.dk/tcp/index

---------------
The COMMLIST
---------------
This mailing list is a free service offered by Nico Carpentier. Please use it responsibly and wisely.
--
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit http://commlist.org/
--
Before sending a posting request, please always read the guidelines at http://commlist.org/
--
To contact the mailing list manager:
Email: (nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)
URL: http://nicocarpentier.net
---------------