Rethinking Cultural Participation, conference 17-19 May
Across Europe there is a demand for institutions to engage citizens. Citizen engagement is nothing new for cultural centers. But there has never been a systematic investigation of how people engage and participate in cultural centers and of what the effects of this might be. This investigation has now been done with the European research and action project, REcCORD. At the Rethinking Cultural Participation conference in Aarhus, researchers and professionals from the European Cultural Centers, who have participated in the REcCORD project, will present their participatory methodology and findings in talks, workshops and debates.
Across Europe there is a demand for institutions to engage citizens. Citizen engagement is nothing new for cultural centers. But there has never been a systematic investigation of how people engage and participate in cultural centers and of what the effects of this might be. This has now been done with the European research and action project REcCORD.
At the 2017 ShortCut conference in Aarhus 17-19 May researchers and professionals from the European Cultural Centers, who have participated in the REcCORD project, will present their findings in talks, workshops and debates with other researchers and stakeholders. REcCORD is the first research project that systematically compares citizen involvement in the European cultural centers. It has involved 40 European cultural centers in an exchange program and bases it findings on knowledge gathered by citizen scientists, professionals from cultural centers. Having citizen participation as both methodogy and object of study, the project provides a new and thorough insight into the participatory dynamics and civic potentials of cultural centers.
The REcCORD project means that we now have an extensive knowledge about the cultural centers, about what kinds of citizen involvement takes place in the cultural centers and what the potentials and effects of these kinds of citizen participation is. This knowledge is important for cultural centers, but also for other institutions working with citizen participation.
At the conference these results will be presented and as such professionals from European cultural centers and other instutions will gain extensive insight into the possibilities and effects of citizen participation and thus obtain tools to develop new participatory practices.
About RECcORD
RECcORD is a Aarhus 2017 - European Capital of Culture project, created in cooperation between European Network of Cultural Centres, Kulturhusene i Danmark, Godsbanen, and researchers from Aarhus Universitet: Take Part members Carsten Stage, Camilla Møhring Reestorff and Birgit Eriksson.
More about the preliminary program and registration here: reccord2017.eu