Apologies fro cross posting

4TH WORKSHOP ON 'MANAGING CULTURAL ORGANISATIONS'
Bologna, October 25-26, 2012



CO-ORGANIZED WITH
GIOCA – University of Bologna (logo)
IMAGINE – CBS (logo)


CHAIRPERSON
Luca Zan (University of Bologna)
Jesper Strandgaard Pedersen (CBS, Copenhagen)


BACKGROUND

Arts organisations, exhibitions centres, galleries, museums, and performing arts institutions have increasingly been put under pressure in the name of improved business efficiency and customer satisfaction in recent years. Privatisation, ‘companisation’ and managerialisation processes are often suggested as the solution for the survival of such entities. However management and economic views tend to assume the character of a self-referential, arbitrary and even colonialist imposition of economic theory and management rhetoric on professional contexts and disciplines, which fail to be understood at the managerial and political levels. Serious conflicts between arts professionals and management experts are perceived all over the world, in both the performing arts and the visual art world, though in different forms.

            Following the first two workshops (London, January 2001; Bologna, December 2004; Bologna, September 2008), the aim of the workshop is to provide a forum for a fresh debate and dialogue between conflicting views between these two worlds, trying to understand better the logic, patterns and possible consequences of the variety of changes occurring in the management practices currently being adopted for arts organisations. In this sense the International Workshop is directed not just to management scholars and experts, but to all types of cultural professionals involved in the processes of creating and presenting the arts and broadened cultural services, as well as managing their organisations. Indeed, co-authored papers by professionals and academics bringing together specialities (arts/heritage/management) will be especially welcome.




CALL FOR PAPERS
The Workshop is organised on the basis of a call for papers. The following are some suggestions for possible topics to be discussed, without setting any limitation as to potential themes and perspectives:


·        The impact of the financial crisis on arts organizations.

·        Managing the heritage chain from archaeological discovery to museum access.

·        National variations and commonalities in managing arts and cultural organizations.

·        Western-centrism and “the rest of the world”: open issues and perspectives.

·        The role of international agencies and their impact in the preservation/disappearance of local specificities.

·        Organisational innovation: governance structures, operating mechanisms and social processes.

·        Professional identity and conflicts between professional groups within the introduction of managerial rhetoric and approaches.
·        Product quality and economic viability: professional and managerial standards.

·        The process of social construction of notions of efficiency and effectiveness in art organisations.

·        Profitability, self-financing, autonomy, or simply accountability: the problematic application of common managerial concepts to arts non-profit organisations.

·        Human resource management in a new institutional context: threats, fears and opportunities.

·        Privatisation, outsourcing, re-organisation beyond ideologies.
·        Partnerships between institutions, local and international – and their management. In reality, who leads?
·        Marketing orientation and the aesthetic point of view.
·        Value creation in the arts and creative industry.
·        New trends in the sociology of cultural consumption: the 'Experience Economy', excess capacity and market saturation.
·        The role of the arts in more broadly-based economic development and renewal.
·        Externalities, aggregate cost/benefit logic, and the managerial conduct of the individual organisation.
·        The difficult triangulation: professionals, arts policies and management discourses.
·        Pitfalls and degenerative impacts of the introduction of managerial and economic views for the survival of arts organisations.
·        Policies and practices and the issue of the level of analysis: between individual organizations, clusters, and urban and regional developments.
·        Special track on planning and heritage organizations: a variety of disciplinary approaches.

It is intended that each paper accepted for presentation will be assigned a discussant to enhance a thorough discussion of the papers.


Deadlines
Abstract submission: July 31, 2012
Acceptance decision: August 31, 2012
Full paper upload: October 16


RELATED EVENTS (1): SPECIAL ISSUE ON PLANNING & HERITAGE
A special issue on Planning & Heritage will be edited by Luca Zan and Maria Lusiani, for the recently launched Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development.
The idea is to bring together different points of view from various disciplines on the practice of planning in heritage sites (master plans, management plans, conservation plans, and the like) and other arts and culture organizations/contexts (urban development, cultural projects, cultural policies and development). Papers presented at the special track on planning & heritage will be considered for the special issue. Details will follow.


RELATED EVENTS (2): A WORKSHOP ON TEACHING ARTS MANAGEMNT
The day following the workshop, October 27, a one day meeting on the teaching of arts management will be held at the Department of Management, University of Bologna. Perspectives and opportunities toward a more integrated European and worldwide collaborations at the level of Masters and PhD will be discussed. Details will follow.