How participatory are we really?

TY - JOUR

T1 - How participatory are we really?

AU - Eriksson, Birgit

AU - Stage, Carsten

PY - 2023/10

Y1 - 2023/10

N2 - The ideal of participatory research practices has been linked to high hopes of creating more relevant, socially robust, and democratic forms of academic knowledge. Researchers have, however, also pointed to a discrepancy between the ideals and reality of participation, in research and elsewhere. This paper uses these critiques of participation to unfold the dilemmas of two participatory projects: RECcORD: Rethinking European Cultural Centers in a European Dimension (2015-17) and Participate: Citizen Participation in Danish Cultural Centers (2019-23). Both projects approached participation as a method that involved co-researching participants from cultural centers and as a practice to be explored as it unfolded in the centers. The paper critically discusses the methodologies of the projects by developing an evaluative framework that highlights both the participatory potentials and pitfalls of the two processes. This transferable framework is based on the concepts of ‘unpredictability’, ‘friction’, ‘autonomy’, ‘inequality’, ‘failure’ and ‘scale’.

AB - The ideal of participatory research practices has been linked to high hopes of creating more relevant, socially robust, and democratic forms of academic knowledge. Researchers have, however, also pointed to a discrepancy between the ideals and reality of participation, in research and elsewhere. This paper uses these critiques of participation to unfold the dilemmas of two participatory projects: RECcORD: Rethinking European Cultural Centers in a European Dimension (2015-17) and Participate: Citizen Participation in Danish Cultural Centers (2019-23). Both projects approached participation as a method that involved co-researching participants from cultural centers and as a practice to be explored as it unfolded in the centers. The paper critically discusses the methodologies of the projects by developing an evaluative framework that highlights both the participatory potentials and pitfalls of the two processes. This transferable framework is based on the concepts of ‘unpredictability’, ‘friction’, ‘autonomy’, ‘inequality’, ‘failure’ and ‘scale’.

KW - Participatory research, method, evaluation, cultural centers

U2 - 10.2478/tjcp-2023-0002

DO - 10.2478/tjcp-2023-0002

M3 - Journal article

SN - 2246-3755

VL - 10

SP - 1

EP - 14

JO - Conjunctions : transdisciplinary journal of cultural participation

JF - Conjunctions : transdisciplinary journal of cultural participation

IS - 1

ER -