Academic literature on the topic 'Participatory arts organisation'

In this paper, we explore our experiences working as team comprised of researchers, teacher, and founder and director of a sex education non-profit organisation, who have formed an intra-activist research and pedagogical assemblage to experiment with relationship and sexuality education (RSE) practices in England’s secondary schools. We draw upon phEmaterialism theory and socially engaged, participatory arts-based research methodologies and pedagogies to explore two examples of arts-based activities that have been developed to de-center humanist, male-dominated, phallocentric, penile-oriented RSE. We also demonstrate how these practices enable educators, researchers, practitioners and students to revalue and rematter feminine genitalia, and resist and refigure unsettling experiences of receiving unsolicited digital dick pics.

The continual rise of participatory media offers increasing opportunities for nonprofessionals and marginalised communities to tell their stories. In the policy arena, Australia's Social Inclusion Agenda and international debates on indicators of well-being name ‘voice’ as a key capability for social inclusion and individual flourishing. In this article, I engage recent scholarship on ‘listening’ and ‘voice that matters’ to highlight the limits of the participatory media genre of digital storytelling and of the social inclusion category of ‘voice’. The discussion is illustrated via examples from public launch events for ‘mini-films’ produced in digital storytelling projects facilitated by Information Cultural Exchange (ICE), a new media arts organisation working in Sydney's cosmopolitan western suburbs. While these public events ensure a process of ‘voice’, I argue for a greater commitment to political listening in media research, practice and policy, lest the promise of ‘voice’ remain only partially fulfilled.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the benefits of a social prescribing service for older people with sensory impairments experiencing social isolation. The paper draws on the findings from a 12-week programme run by Sense, a voluntary sector organisation, and illustrates how integrated services, combining arts-based participation and voluntary sector support, can create positive health and wellbeing outcomes for older people. Design/methodology/approach – The research took a mixed-methodological approach, conducting and analysing data from interviews and dynamic observation proformas with facilitators and quantitative psychological wellbeing scores with participants throughout the course of the programme. Observations and case study data were also collected to complement and contextualise the data sets. Findings – The research found that participatory arts programmes can help combat social isolation amongst older people with sensory impairments and can offer an important alliance for social care providers who are required to reach more people under increasing pecuniary pressures. The research also highlights other benefits for health and wellbeing in the group including increased self-confidence, new friendships, increased mental wellbeing and reduced social isolation. Research limitations/implications – The research was based on a sample size of 12 people with sensory impairments and therefore may lack generalisability. However, similar outcomes for people engaging in participatory arts through social prescription are documented elsewhere in the literature. Practical implications – The paper includes implications for existing health and social care services and argues that delivering more integrated services that combine health and social care pathways with arts provision have the potential to create social and medical health benefits without being care/support resource heavy. Originality/value – This paper fulfils a need to understand and develop services that are beneficial to older people who become sensory impaired in later life. This cohort is growing and, at present, there are very few services for this community at high risk of social isolation.

This article examines the proliferation of alt. health influencers during the COVID-19 pandemic. I analyse the self-presentation strategies used by four alt. health influencers to achieve visibility and status on Instagram over a 12-month period from 11 March 2020, when the pandemic was declared by the World Health Organisation. My analysis reveals the ways in which these influencers appeal to the utopian discourses of early web culture and the underlying principles of wellness culture to build and sustain an online following. While early accounts of micro-celebrity treat participatory culture as democratising and progressive, this article demonstrates how the participatory affordances of social media have been exploited to spread misinformation, conspiratorial thinking and far-right extremism. These findings develop previous work on ‘conspirituality’ by demonstrating how wellness culture and web culture can coalesce for authoritarian ends.

Previous research has highlighted the individual and social benefits of participation in arts activities for physical, psychological and social well-being. However, less is known about the transformative community aspects of the arts and very few studies have investigated arts participation over a substantial period. This article reports a case study of an older people’s choir over a 4-year period, involving interviews, focus groups, observations and a World Café participatory discussion. In support of previous literature, choir members highlighted many individual and interpersonal benefits of being part of the choir. They also emphasised the importance of developing social relationships within a supportive community, and the importance of musical achievement was central to the ongoing development of the choir. Our analysis identified five main themes: personal investment and reward; inclusive community; always evolving yet fundamentally unchanged; a desire to connect; and leadership and organisation. Considering these with reference to Seligman’s PERMA framework from positive psychology, it is apparent that social relationships, meaning and accomplishment are particularly emphasised as reasons why older people find singing in a community choir so beneficial for well-being. Sustainability is a major concern, and factors such as an expert music leader to support this are identified.

Introduction. This article examines the modern educational approach in the field of liberal arts and practical finance, democratisation of the decision-making system in educational institutions through the active engagement of students on the example of US schools and universities. This approach is based on initiative, or participatory budgeting, i.e. students are involved in the process of allocation of budgetary funds of schools and universities. Such participatory practice has educational and administrative objectives, as it serves to improve the quality management in educational institutions through the involvement of students in major decisions. Taking into account the fact that students are the key beneficiaries of the education system, their opinions lead to increased efficiency in educational institutions.Aim. On the basis of real cases, the current research is aimed to identify and describe participatory techniques that can integrate the teaching of theoretical knowledge in the field of civil society with the formation of practical skills in this area.Methodology and research methods. Desk research method of analysing primary and secondary sources (websites of educational institutions, academic publications, and articles in the media) and the field sociological method of expert interviews were used. Expert interviews with representatives of schools and universities, teachers, officers from educational institutions, consultants from the Participatory Budgeting Project, the leading consulting organisation in North America were conducted.Results. The results of the study reveal several participatory techniques for students’ engagement in the allocation of budgetary funds of schools and universities that are applied in New York and Arizona. The identified and described technologies of participation contribute to the formation of students’ knowledge of socio-economic disciplines, practical finance and civics, project management skills, as well as an increase in civic engagement.Scientific novelty. The present study expands the ideas about how to improve the process of teaching social and economic disciplines at schools and universities, practical finance and project management. The method of improving the efficiency of educational institutions through democratic practices is identified.Practical significance. In the future, the proposed approach can be applied in Russian educational institutions.

This article explores the relevance of voice, recognition and consent as central attributes of the subject of participatory journalism. On the understanding that in democracy the design of political and social organisation ought to favour a process that develops the public voice of citizens, it explores the role that journalism, above all the public service kind, plays in meeting this objective. From this perspective, an analysis is performed on the discourses of the viewers of the newscasts of the Spanish public TV channel TVE, with a view to determining to what extent public recognition is based on the following three elements: (1) the recognition of citizens as such, (2) their capacity to give or withhold their consent and (3) to develop a voice capable of vindicating participation. The discussion and results aim to contribute to the debate on the ‘critical juncture’ of media history, at which the information ecosystem is undergoing far-reaching changes.

Purpose Quality, accessible and appropriate housing is key to older people’s ability to live independently. The purpose of this paper is to understand older people’s housing aspirations and whether these are currently being met. Evidence suggests one in five households occupied by older people in England does not meet the standard of a decent home. The Building Research Establishment has calculated that poor housing costs the English National Health Service £1,4bn annually (Roys et al., 2016). Design/methodology/approach This paper reports on the findings of a participatory theatre approach to engaging with those not often heard from – notably, those ageing without children and older people with primary responsibility for ageing relatives – about planning for housing decisions in later life. The project was led by an older people’s forum, Elders Council, with Skimstone Arts organisation and Northumbria University, in the north east of England. Findings Findings suggest there is an urgent need to listen to and engage with people about their later life housing aspirations. There is also a need to use this evidence to inform housing, health and social care policy makers, practitioners, service commissioners and providers and product and service designers, to encourage older people to become informed and plan ahead. Research limitations/implications Use of a participatory theatre approach facilitated people to explore their own decision making and identify the types of information and support they need to make critical decisions about their housing in later life. Such insights can generate evidence for future housing, social care and health needs. Findings endorse the recent Communities and Local Government (2018) Select Committee Inquiry and report on Housing for Older People and the need for a national strategy for older people’s housing. Originality/value Although this call is evidenced through an English national case study, from within the context of global population ageing, it has international relevance.

AbstractFocusing on the first large-scale protests in Chile after the reinstatement of democracy in 1990, this article examines the emergence of the 2006 Pingüino movement and shows how it succeeded in mobilising thousands of secondary school students against the neoliberal education model. It argues that several distinct but intertwined dimensions explain the movement's emergence. In 2006, secondary school student groups merged to form a single organisation and adopted a horizontal and participatory decision-making mechanism. At the same time, shortcomings in the education reforms of the 1980s and 1990s were revealed in terms of quality and equity, creating grievances that were fed into the movement's collective action frame. Finally, President Bachelet's rhetoric of a ‘government of citizens’ as an attempt to counteract the elitist nature of the Concertación's governance formula signified an opening of the structure of political opportunities that the students knew to take advantage of.

This thesis examines the significance of social learning in community media and arts contexts. It takes as its focus the use of storytelling by organisations in the community cultural development and community media sectors as a way of enacting social change from within communities. These organisations exist as hybrid learning environments, and they must maintain certain standards of quality in their processes and outcomes to be of ongoing value in their communities and to funders. Such community organisations create networked social learning systems, and the co-creative media practice explored in this thesis is learnt ‘in situ’ in communities of practice.

Les organisations qui s’engagent dans une démarche de responsabilité sociale sont appelées à mieux prendre en considération les impacts environnementaux, sociaux et économiques de leurs activités et à communiquer publiquement les engagements qu’il prennent. Ces engagements sont véhiculés à travers différents médias réalisés par un designer graphique. Comme les notions de responsabilité sociale sont complexes et les engagements uniques à chaque organisation, le designer doit s’assurer de bien comprendre le message à transmettre pour rendre les médias cohérents autant dans leur forme que dans leur contenu. Pour aider le designer à répondre à ce défi, une démarche participative, qui vise la collaboration entre les parties prenantes en amont du processus, a été testée dans le cadre de cette recherche. Elle consistait à observer et à documenter, en contexte de pratique réel, comment une démarche participative pouvait soutenir la communication graphique de la responsabilité sociale d’une organisation. La création de l’identité visuelle et des médias de l’Institut de l’environnement, du développement durable et de l’économie circulaire a été choisi comme cas d’étude. Suivant une méthodologie inspirée de la recherche-action, nous avons pu identifier et valider les freins et les leviers de la démarche avec les participants. Les résultats obtenus soulignent l’apport positif de la démarche au processus de conception. Elle a permis aux parties prenantes de visualiser collectivement les valeurs de RS à communiquer grâce à un partage de connaissances. De plus, le processus itératif et participatif a facilité l’appropriation du projet par l’organisation. Le manque de temps, de ressources humaines et de ressources économiques constituent les principaux freins au maintien de la démarche au-delà de l’étape d’idéation et de rétroaction. L’analyse des données recueillies a permis de formuler des recommandations en vue d’améliorer la démarche pour en favoriser l’usage auprès de la communauté de pratique du design graphique et des organisations qui recourent à ses services pour communiquer leur responsabilité sociale.
Organizations are increasingly choosing to implement corporate social responsibility in their activities. To do so, they are invited to consider the environmental, social and economic impacts of their activities and decisions and, consequently, share it with their stakeholders. These commitments are conveyed to the audience through different medias created by a graphic designer. Since corporate social responsibility knowledge is complex and unique to each organization, the designer has to carefully understand the organization’s message in order to create medias that are consistent in their form and content. To help the graphic designer respond to this challenge, a participative approach was tested through this research. The objective was to observe and document, while collaborating with a group of stakeholders, on a graphic design project and understand how a participative approach can support the graphic communication of an organization’s corporate social responsibility. The graphic design of the corporate identity and the medias of EDDEC Institute of environment, sustainable development and circular economy was selected to conduct this research. A methodology, inspired by action-research, was chosen to identify, with the project’s stakeholders, the brakes and levers of the approach. The results are confirming the general benefits of the participative approach to the creative process. Stakeholders were able to share and visualize their understanding of the organization’s corporate social responsibility. The iterative process, which is part of the approach, also helped the appropriation of the corporate identity by the organization’s stakeholders. Despite these positive aspects, limitations due to short delays and insufficient human and financial resources were major constraints in supporting the participative approach during the entire process. Recommendations towards the improvement of this participative approach were then formulated for its eventual usage by the graphic design community and its clients, in order to communicate their corporate social responsibility.

In Australia people of African heritage are subjected to racialised structural exclusion grounded in ideologies of white supremacy. However, resistance can be enacted through the creation of alternative settings that through self-determination foster greater control over symbolic and material resources and to imagine more just ways of knowing, being and doing. Next in Colour (NiC) is a self-determined initiative in Naarm (Melbourne) led by Colour Between the Lines, a collective of creative artists of African heritage. The initiative developed networks of support, opportunities and vocational pathways to the creative industries for people of African heritage; and engaged community arts approaches to foster critical conversations about identity, belonging and community and surface counter- narratives about the African diaspora in Australia. This study documented how self- determination came to be understood and enacted through the alternative setting of the NiC initiative and how self-determined outcomes were constrained and facilitated through the organisations CBTL sought support from. Informed by decolonial and critical race frameworks data from semi-structured interviews, participant observation and archival research was collected drawing on community-engaged approaches and analysed through a frame of critical narrative analysis. The findings show that NiC served as a homeplace for healing and deconstruction, and a site to reimagine relationships and ways of working that supported decolonial actions of counter-storytelling, authentic visibility and building of solidarities. However, whilst CBTL looked to key organisations to support the initiative and build capacity, forms of racialised structural exclusion NiC was responding to were reproduced in these organisational relationships, constraining self-determination and contributing to hidden labour as CBTL navigated and resisted these dynamics of control and exclusion. The findings of this study show the importance of self-determination and community arts practice within the creation of alternative settings towards liberation and structural inclusion for racialised communities. Further, it highlights the necessity of a contextualised analysis of power and ideology to understand how such settings can best be supported.

This research investigates the theory of organisational knowledge creation as a viable model in the management of multi-practitioner arts-related practice-led research projects conducted at the North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus. In this regard Transgressions and Boundaries of the Page (2009-2012) (an interdisciplinary exploration of a practice-led research project by means of the artist’s book) is analysed according to the said theory in order to ascertain the compatibility of this theory and the projects outlined. It should be noted that the particular project is not discussed as an example of the application of the theory of organisational knowledge creation. Rather, the purpose of this research is to identify the appearance of salient aspects of the given theory in order to ascertain whether this could be an appropriate management model for future projects of this nature. Accordingly, the goal is to identify such a model that will facilitate and promote creative practice and accredited research within the History of Art, Graphic Design, and Creative Writing disciplines at the North-West Universities Potchefstroom campus. The proposed coupling of the theory of organisational knowledge creation and multi-practitioner arts-related projects by way of practice-led research is underpinned by the fact that both can be situated within the participatory paradigm due to a common conceptualisation of knowledge. This paradigm offers an extended epistemology consisting of practical, experiential, presentational, and propositional knowledge. This paradigm effectively integrates both the tacit and explicit knowledge modalities, which are fundamental to practice-led research and the theory of organisational knowledge creation. A further commonality is the fact that knowledge is considered as an interdisciplinary, subjective and socially constructed phenomenon. In the context of this research, practice-led research involves the self-reflective process, which involves the making, reading and interpretation of creative outputs in the academic milieu. This requires the utilisation of reflective practice to communicate both the tacit and explicit knowledge dimensions. Additionally the participatory paradigm, practice-led research and the theory of organisational knowledge creation advocate a knowledge process that moves through a tacit–explicit knowledge cycle. This knowledge creation cycle in the participatory paradigm and the theory of organisational knowledge creation occur in four levels. In consequence, the Transgressions and Boundaries of the Page project has been managed in four phases. It is against this background that the four knowledge conversion levels of this theory are linked with the extended epistemology of the participatory paradigm to analyse the four phases of the Transgressions and Boundaries of the Page project. The first phase of the Transgressions and Boundaries of the Page project entailed the conceptualisation, planning, and preparation during August 2008 to March 2009. This phase is analysed by means of level one of the theory of organisational knowledge creation (explicit to tacit knowledge conversion) and practical knowledge of the participatory paradigm. The second phase of the project, namely knowledge creation, took place from March 2009 to January 2010. The analysis of this phase is accomplished by means of level two of the theory of organisational knowledge creation (tacit to tacit knowledge conversion) and experiential knowledge of the participatory paradigm. The third phase of the project, namely knowledge presentation and communication, from February 2010 to July 2010 corresponds with, and is analysed by, level three of the theory of organisational knowledge creation (tacit to explicit knowledge conversion) and presentational knowledge of the participatory paradigm. The fourth knowledge formalisation and dissemination phase of the project occurred during July 2010 to December 2011. This phase is analysed by means of level four of the theory of organisational knowledge creation (explicit to explicit knowledge conversion) and propositional knowledge of the participatory paradigm. Consequently, I argued that each phase of the project correlates with the corresponding levels of the theory of organisational knowledge creation, knowledge conversion mechanisms and the knowledge modalities of the participatory paradigms. The four phases of the project and the four levels share common knowledge conversion and creation processes and goals that are attributed to the common conceptualisation of knowledge. Distinct correlations between the knowledge creation goals of the knowledge conversion levels and phases were identified. Therefore, the mechanisms used to achieve knowledge conversion and creation were applicable to the assigned management phases of the project. It was further argued that it is possible to adapt the current management approach to the more structured theory of organisational knowledge creation without negating either the tacit or explicit knowledge modalities. Consequently it is concluded that the theory of organisational knowledge creation, which is a management model normally used in the commercial business context, could be utilised to manage multi-practitioner arts related practice-led research projects more effectively in the academic context.
PhD (History of Art), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

In an era when many of us depend on debt to survive but struggle with its consequences, Financing Prosperity by Dealing with Debt draws together current thinking on how to solve debt crises and promote inclusive prosperity. By profiling existing action by credit unions and community organisations, alongside bold proposals for the future, with contributions from artists, activists and academics, the book shows how we can rethink the validity and inevitability of many contemporary forms of debt through organising debt audits, promoting debt cancellation and expanding member-owned co-operatives. The authors set out legal and political methods for changing the rules of the system to provide debt relief and reshape economies for more inclusive and sustainable flourishing. The book also profiles community-based actions that are changing the role of debt in economic, social and political life – among them, participatory art projects, radical advice networks and ways of financing feminist green transitions. While much of the research and activism documented here has taken place in London, the contributors show how different initiatives draw from and generate inspiration elsewhere, from debt audits across the global south, creative interventions around the UK and grassroots movements in North America. Financing Prosperity by Dealing with Debt moves beyond critique to present a wealth of concrete ways to tackle debt and forge the prosperous communities we want for the future.

This chapter studies how new perspectives on organisational practices are revealed when participants in an arts practice research project decide to focus on a local heritage subject. The Lavender Project, as this arts project became known, is a case study in an Arts and Humanities Research Council Connected Communities collaborative doctoral award between Robert Gordon University and community partner Woodend Barn, a rural arts centre in the North East of Scotland. The chapter shows how participants with different roles across their organisation reflect critically together upon difficult and complex topics, including the future direction of their arts centre. The dialogues are characterised by humour and metaphor, referencing the heritage subject and their experience of this research process. These reflections shed light on how collaborative participatory arts research, when combined with a local heritage subject identified by the participants, can open new spaces for criticality between communities, generating durable, negotiated change.

This chapter seeks to legitimize the biological ecosystem concept as an expanded analogy for representing relationships between agents of the social, cultural and artistic systems involved in the creation, research, exhibition, enjoyment, experimentation and education of digital media art, including organisational, participatory and socio-economic integration aspects. It also aims at demonstrating the virtual/material dichotomy anachronism, proposing as an alternative the blended reality concept. By exploring the mechanisms of individual artistic and intellectual emancipation of the digital media art universe, it seeks to demonstrate how the relationships between the various ecosystem agents are becoming increasingly blended, leading to the creation of b-ecosystems, in short, a b-society.

The demand for accountable and transparent government in post-apartheid is apparent as citizens and social movements are up in arms exercising their democratic citizenship for democratic governance. By employing effective communication, sharing tasks, planning together, and monitoring performance, teams are able to achieve their goals. The advantage of adopting a virtual state and teams is that the usage of technology to mediate virtual teams allows organisations to reduce costs (human and non-human resources), especially for international virtual teams. This chapter argues that without a holistic understanding of how the government works, the existing participatory mechanisms such as the constituency offices and ward committees would not yield the desired outcomes and impact. The chapter made use of case studies of communities of practice to unpack the concept of a virtual state and communities.