[Commlist] Call for papers - A conference on failure and the cultural sector

Call for Papers (apologies for cross posting)
A national conference underpinned by learning from the AHRC Failspace 
Project, examining how the cultural sector can better identify, 
acknowledge, and learn from failure
Date: 7th of December 2022
Venue: Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh 
(https://www.qmu.ac.uk/location-and-getting-here/)
Over the last 3 years the Failspace team have been examining how the 
cultural sector can better identify, acknowledge, and learn from 
failure. What we have found through our research is a cultural landscape 
that is not conducive to honesty or critical reflection about failures; 
a problem that exists not only in the cultural sector but across much of 
public policy.
A lack of trust and open dialogue between participants, artists, 
organisations, and funders, fuelled by a fear of losing funding, future 
work, or professional reputation encourages narratives of success as a 
self-defensive act of blame avoidance.  But this discourages risk 
taking, encourages repetition of past mistakes and results in a failure 
to learn that limits significant change.
We also argue that the prevalence of these ‘feel-good’ narratives and 
the tendency to overstate impacts through uncritical stories of success 
risks undermining the credibility of arguments about why state subsidies 
for public services, including arts and culture, are necessary.

In response, we developed a framework for talking about failure 
(https://failspaceproject.co.uk/) which we hope will help to normalise 
conversations about the failures that inevitably occur in cultural 
projects and policies, where outright success or failure is rare. Our 
framework encourages people to consider success and failure across a 
range of facets, along a spectrum of degrees, over different timescales 
and from the perspective of different stakeholders, with differing value 
systems – for a policy or project that succeeds for one group, 
community, or organisation might fail for another.

Over the course of 2022 we will be continuing to work with several 
cultural organisations, funders, and artists to explore ways in which we 
can embedded a commitment to talking openly about failures into the 
processes and practices of the cultural sector, recognising the 
potential for learning and change that such openness and honesty can 
engender. This conference will reflect on that work, providing 
opportunities to hear from our partner organisations and Failspace 
Champions about the challenges of adopting a more honest approach to 
failure and the benefits that it can bring. We hope that the conference 
offers an opportunity to share learning and challenge the current 
dominant narratives of success.
We hope to complement these discussions with inputs from other 
academics, policymakers, and practitioners, both professional and 
amateur, who have a perspective on the role and value of failure 
regarding cultural policy as well as across wider public policy areas. 
We see this as building upon the work published as part of a special 
edition in 2020 (https://sciendo.com/issue/TJCP/7/2). We therefore 
invite empirical, theoretical and practice informed contributions from 
across a range of disciplines.
Topics may include, but need not be confined to, the following:

•	Case studies of failure in cultural participation projects/policies
•	The value and role of recognising, understanding, and learning from 
failure for policymaking
•	Defining and recognising failure in relation to creative practice 
and/or cultural policy
•	The relationship between risk and failure in relation to creative 
practice and/or cultural policy
•	Failures of leadership/governance in the cultural sector •	Case 
studies of organisational failure in the cultural sector
•	The politics of failure
•	The psychology of failure •	The morality and ethics of failure in 
policymaking •	Evaluating and reporting on failures in cultural projects 
and policies •	The relationship between quality and failure in relation 
to creative practice and/or cultural policy •	Framing failures in policy 
and project evaluations
•	Discourses of failure and success in cultural policy

We will consider presentations, panels, and workshop-based activities. 
All proposals will undergo peer review for final selection in the 
conference programme. We intend for this event to happen in person 
(subject to any Covid-19 related restrictions that may be in force at 
the time) as such, there is not an option to present online.
How to submit a proposal

By the 17th of June 2022, please complete your proposal online at: 
https://forms.office.com/r/ivH69xjCss where you will be asked to provide 
us with:

•	an outline or abstract of no more than 500 words describing what you 
would like to present or offer the conference
•	a biog of no more than 100 words for all those who would be involved

Should you have any questions about the conference, please contact 
Lizzie Ridley -  (pc16ewr /at/ leeds.ac.uk). The selection of paper 
presentations and sessions will be announced by the end of July 2022.


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