Histories of cultural participation, values and governance / editors: Eleonora Belfiore, Lisanne Gibson

This book develops the first integrated, critical-historical examination of the terms, narratives and assumptions constructing present day notions of participation and value, and the relations between them. Histories of Cultural Participation, Values and Governance proposes a radical re-evaluation of these relationships, organized in two inter-related sections, on political discourses of participation and value, and on culture and governance. The essays collected here provide an in-depth historical understanding of the development of definitions, assumptions and beliefs around the nature and value of cultural participation, their place in contemporary cultural governance and exploitation in local socio-economic development strategies. They also bring a novel perspective to current policy, practice and scholarly debates on the connections between culture, place-making and the creative economy. As such, the essays provide vital historical insight that sheds light on contemporary issues of cultural participation, value and governance. (Font: Editor)

Reading the Present Through the Past: A Critical Introduction / Eleonora Belfiore [ et al.] -- Valuing Cultural Participation: The Usefulness of the Eighteenth-Century Stage / Jane Milling -- Cultural Participation and the Place of History: A Case Study of Peterborough Societies, Past and Present / Felicity James -- From CEMA to the Arts Council: Cultural Authority, Participation and the Question of ‘Value’ in Early Post-war Britain / Eleonora Belfiore -- Enacting Community on Dartmoor: MED Theatre’s Badgerland: A Dartmoor Comedy (2015) and the Spatial Praxis of Community Performance Within a Conservation Zone / Kerrie Schaefer -- Histories of Public Parks in Manchester and Salford and Their Role in Cultural Policies for Everyday Participation / Abigalil Gilmore [et al.] -- Cultural Ecologies: Policy, Participation and Practices / Lisanne Gibson -- Calling Participation to Account: Taking Part in the Politics of Method / Catherine Bunting, Catherine [et al.] -- An Afterword / Peter Stark