PROBLEMS WITH PARTICIPATION
In many areas of cultural policies and activities, but also in education, local development, and urban planning, participatory processes are seen as desirable to such an extent that they become prescribed by institutions, governments, or donors. This, in turn, creates many tensions that have lately been debated in cultural policy literature.
Problems with participation include:
· ‘Pseudo-participation’, which stands for acts of empty democratic performance in which only superficial and marginal decisions are left to participatory decision-making.
· ‘Participation-washing’, which is a practice of legitimising of certain controversial programs or institutions with a bad reputation through engaging with the audience.
· ‘Participation fatigue’, which is about disillusionment with participatory processes and reluctance to engage with them, usually as a consequence of previous experiences of tokenisation and/or ‘participation-washing’.
· ‘Tyranny of participation’, which relates to cases in which publics or participants are forced into participation processes in order to get support or maintain a certain status.
In all these instances, participation processes are not necessarily desired or initiated by different publics. Instead, they are used to achieve institutional, private, or political goals. In other words, participants and their time, effort, and contributions are instrumentalised for producing outcomes that are not in their own interest. In that sense, no empowerment or emancipation takes place, which is at odds with the theoretical promise of participation.
The notions listed above represent a valuable critique of participatory practices and policies. They shed light on some important yet weak spots in many participatory processes, including key reasons and motives for initiating participatory processes as well as the power imbalance between participants and initiators of these processes. The power imbalances also include institutional settings in which participatory processes take place. The question is also, to what extent are participants aware of the process and its outcomes, and what kind of contribution and behaviour is desired from them. Finally, it is important to establish how the individual positions and statements of participants are represented in participatory processes.
While it is hard to argue against participation within cultural policy and cultural management, there is a growing concern that many attempts to involve citizens in creative processes or governing are failing. This means that continued debate, learning, and experimentation are needed to advance standards and methods of participation in the arts and culture. (GT, VK)