Call for Papers: MACCH Conference Participatory Practices

The Maastricht Centre for Arts and Culture, Conservation and Heritage (MACCH) is pleased to announce the upcoming conference: ‘Participatory Practices in Arts and Heritage’ on 17-18 March 2017. The deadline for abstracts is Monday 16 January 2017. This event is a collaboration between MACCH, the research centre Autonomy and the Public Sphere in the Arts, Zuyd University of Applied Sciences and the Jan van Eyck Academie.

In recent decades, ‘participation’ and related notions such as ‘community engagement’ and ‘co-creation’ have become increasingly commonplace in the vocabulary of policy makers, politicians, academics and practitioners. Building on Arnstein’s seminal ladder of participation (1969) continued efforts have been undertaken to create new frameworks for building participation in arts and heritage worlds – online and offline. Museum policies and practices are prioritising visitor engagement over the traditional focus on collecting and preservation (cf. Simon 2010, McSweeney and Kavanagh 2016). Similarly, heritage worlds see an upsurge in participatory governance models favouring the expertise of local communities rather than that of trained professionals (cf. Waterton and Watson 2013, Schofield 2015). Yet, although new forms of audience and community engagement as well as models for ‘co-creation’ are flourishing, the development of ethical frameworks, the jurisdiction concerning intellectual property rights, and theoretical reflection and critical assessment are lagging behind.

This conference aims to fill this gap by offering a critical space to scrutinize participatory practices and their economic and legal frameworks. How can art and heritage worlds learn from participatory practices and reflection in other domains? What are good practices for public participation? What are the pitfalls and limitations of participatory development? How can we understand and respond to the seductive claims of participation as an instrument for social innovation and related – often naïve – assumptions of radical shifts in power relations? (Cooke and Kothari 2001) Papers, panels and workshops will explore pertinent topics such as ‘The politics of participation’; ‘Innovation through new forms of audience participation’; ‘Legal frameworks for co-creation’, ‘Philanthropy as a form of participation’, and ‘Crowdsourcing cultural heritage’.

In line with the trans-disciplinary nature of MACCH, the organizers welcome papers from humanities and social sciences as well as artists’ presentations focusing on (but not limited to) topics related to: Theories of participation in relation to art and heritage / Politics of participation / Rhetoric of participation / Ethical concerns / Artistic innovation and co-creation / Digital participation and user practices in the cultural heritage domain/ Legal frameworks for arts and heritage participation / Public history and public archeology

Please submit paper proposals no later than Monday 16 January 2017 via email to the conference manager, Yleen Simonis (yleen.simonis@maastrichtuniversity.nl). Proposals should include the author’s name and affiliation as well as contact details, title of abstract and a summary of 500 words. All papers will be delivered in English. We welcome academic as well as professional contributions. The scientific committee reviews all paper proposals and invites the selected speakers in early February.

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