Jancovich, L orcid.org/0000-0003-0381-1557 and Stevenson, D orcid.org/0000-0002-8977-1818 (2021) Failure seems to be the hardest word to say. The International Journal of Cultural Policy. ISSN 1028-6632
Abstract
Policy interventions, to increase participation, have long been informed by data demonstrating inequity in the subsidised cultural sector. However, it is less clear how evidence is employed to judge success or failure of initiatives to create greater equity. Indeed, quantitative surveys suggest a failure to change patterns of cultural participation. Despite this a large body of evaluation reports celebrate the ‘success’ of participatory projects. This article presents findings from UK research that explores how cultural participation policies might be improved by better acknowledgment of failures. The research involved interviews, questionnaires, workshops, observations and documentary analysis involving over 200 policymakers, cultural practitioners, and participants. It identified a cultural policy landscape that is not conducive to honesty or critical reflection and argues that without this it will persistently fail to learn or to deliver the scale of change required to create the equity it professes to desire.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Participation; failure; cultural policy; evaluation |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > Performance and Cultural Industries (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number AHRC (Arts & Humanities Research Council) AH/R008760/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 25 Jan 2021 16:53 |
Last Modified: | 08 Jan 2025 12:42 |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | Routledge |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/10286632.2021.1879798 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:170314 |
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