The Participation Myth Dr. Leila Jancovich For Cultural Policy Observatory Ireland event on 23 October 2017 at Queen's University Belfast, Leila Jancovich introduced her research on the participatory turn in cultural policy. She will explore the gap between policy and practice in the cultural sector. She did this through examination of both policy rhetoric and strategies to increase participation in general and participatory decision making in particular. In so doing she examined the politics of participation and the nature of power within the cultural sector and called for a wider range of voices to be heard in decision making.

1. The Participation Myth
Dr Leila Jancovich
University of Leeds
www.culturalparticipation.co.uk

2. Myth or reality?
The claims
50 year academic
discourse on
participation
Claims of new
participatory culture
Public policy agenda
post millennium
The evidence
Rising inequalities
Declining public
engagement (from voting
to leisure)
Correlation between
levels of engagement &
socio-economic status

3. Why does participation matter?
UN development goals
(Fukuda-Parr et al 2004)
Principle of equity vs. rising inequality
Social inclusion of diverse populations
Give voice to the disenfranchised
Create healthy people and places
Increase public value in services
Efficiency gains and self help

4. Other reasons….
For cultural organisations
Justification for public
money
Marketing need for
“bums on seats”
Or learning tool for
organisation
i.e. participation in culture
For participants
Civic responsibility
Socialising
Skills development
Have fun!
i.e. participation
through culture

5. Tyranny of participation!
Cooke and Kothari 2002
Ubiquitous term all institutions
strive to address
Diverse aims = diversity of
approaches and definitions
But is participation necessarily
positive?
Do we value some forms of
participation more than others?

6. Ladder or continuum?

7. UNESCO definitions of
cultural participation
Interacting
- Entirely focused on digital
engagement
- Assumed wider reach, not
apparent in evidence
Performing/producing
(taking part)
-social impacts but less
culturally valued
Attending/
receiving
(watching/reading)
– most socially stratified
but most funded
- for sport not measured,
not valued
Morrone (2006)
Listed as equals but some more equal than others….
NB Decision making not mentioned!

8. Cultural participation -
policy failure
Seen as consumer deficit NOT failings in cultural offer
Therefore focus on participation in existing institutions
– e.g audience development, outreach, education,
concessionary pricing
NO evidence increasing diversity of who participates
Participation still correlated with social status
Growing evidence of benefits of resourcing everyday
participation and creativity
But resistance to change in cultural sector and
resurgence of calls for “excellence”
“an interminable circuit
of inter-legitimisation”
Bourdieu 1995

9. Elsewhere in public policy….
participation in service design
Project design
Engagement and
capacity building
Setting priorities
and project
proposals
Deliberation and
decision making
Commissioning
and delivery and
evaluation
Adapted from
http://www.participatorybudgeting.org.uk/documents/Participatory%20Budgeting%20
Toolkit.pdf

10. A wider range of voices
Arts seen as late adopters due to threat to
“expertise” and “artistic independence”
But growing number of strategies
– E.g. public value research (consulting), co-
commissioning (partnership), asset transfer (devolved
responsibility)
Value for artistic and audience development
But used more to legitimise than change practice
Diverse meanings accused of making word
meaningless
Need to ask participation by who, in what and
why?

11. References and readings
BOURDIEU, 1995. Distinction, London, Routledge
BRODIE, COWLING & NISSEN, 2009. Understanding participation, a literature
review. Pathways through participation.
www.Pathwaysthroughparticipation.Org.Uk
COOKE & KOTHARI, 2001. Participation: The New Tyranny? Zed Books
DCMS, 2011. Taking Part Survey, the National Survey of Culture, Leisure and
Sport, www.culture.gov.uk/takingpart
FENNELL,GAVELIN, & JACKSON, 2009. Participatory Budgeting and the Arts.
London: Involve.
FUKUDA-PARR ET AL, 2004. Human Development report 2004, Cultural liberty
in today’s diverse world, New York, United nations Development programme
JANCOVICH, 2015. The Participation Myth International Journal of cultural
policy, Volume 23, Issue 1
KEANEY, 2006. Public value and the arts, London, Arts Council England.
MORRONE, 2006. Guidelines for Measuring Cultural Participation, UNESCO
Institute for Statistics