Participatory Arts and Active Citizenship

如果20世纪见证了“民主的胜利”，那么21世纪似乎与“民主的失败”结合在一起，因为世界各地的公民（暂时抛开北非和中东的最新发展）似乎已经变得不信任政治家，对民主制度持怀疑态度，对民主政治解决紧迫社会问题的能力感到幻灭。即使是对图书馆书架上的书的书背最匆匆的一瞥，也会发现一组后千年的标题很难让人产生对一切都很好的信心（“不满的民主”，“民主挑战”，“民主选择”，“当代民主中的政治不满”，“对民主的仇恨”，“为什么我们讨厌政治”，“民主赤字”，“消失的选民”，“民主的撤退”，“不受控制的社会和不满的个人，等等）。加布里埃尔·阿尔蒙德（Gabriel Almond）和西德尼·韦尔巴（Sidney Verba）如此推崇的“公民文化”不知何故演变成了一种“批判文化”，对民主的未来同样悲观。正是在这种背景下，该项目考察了艺术和文化活动重新吸引孤立的个人和社会群体的能力和价值。换句话说，文化在缩小统治者和被统治者之间差距的潜在能力方面是否具有社会价值？一些学者——实际上是古代哲学家——已经提出，艺术努力和活动与公民价值观和民主参与之间存在着积极的关系，但迄今为止还没有研究试图(1)对现有研究和数据进行荟萃分析，或者(2)开展一个具体的项目，在以艺术为基础的社会项目之前和之后检查个人的社会价值观和态度。更不用说(3)试图设计一种基于证据的方法来量化文化活动的公民价值。通过与包括皇家艺术学会、下议院外联部、“公园艺术”和谢菲尔德大学克里克公共政治理解中心在内的一系列参与者合作，并启动一个创新的跨代艺术项目，这项研究将产生解决这三个挑战的产出。这项研究不会——实际上不可能——得出任何广泛的或全面的结论，它的发现将不可避免地受到质疑，但它将提供理论知情的政策相关研究，以积极和循证的方式推动关于文化价值的辩论。

If the twentieth century witnessed 'the triumph of democracy' then the twenty-first century appears wedded to 'the failure of democracy' as citizens around the world (setting recent developments in North Africa and the Middle East aside for the moment) appear to have become distrustful of politicians, sceptical about democratic institutions, and disillusioned about the capacity of democratic politics to resolve pressing social concerns. Even the most cursory glance along the spines of the books on the library shelves reveal a set of post-millennium titles that hardly engender confidence that all is well ('Disaffected Democracies', 'Democratic Challenges', 'Democratic Choices', 'Political Disaffection in Contemporary Democracies', 'Hatred of Democracy', 'Why We Hate Politics', 'Democratic Deficit', 'Vanishing Voters', 'Democracy in Retreat', 'Uncontrollable Societies and Disaffected Individuals, etc.). The 'civic culture' so endeared by Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba had somehow mutated into a 'critical culture' with parallel pessimism about the future of democracy. It is exactly this context that this project examines the capacity and value of artistic and cultural activities to re-engage disconnected individuals and social groups. Put slightly differently, does culture have a social value in terms of a potential capacity to close the gap between the governors and the governed? Several scholars - and indeed ancient philosophers - have suggested that a positive relationship exists between artistic endeavours and activities and civic values and democratic engagement but as yet no study has attempted to either (1) undertake a meta-analysis of the available research and data, or (2) undertake a specific project that examines individual social values and attitudes before and after an art-based social project, let alone (3) attempted to devise an evidence-based methodology for quantifying the civic value of cultural activity. By working with a range of actors - including the Royal Society of Arts, the House of Commons Outreach Department, 'Art in the Park' and the Crick Centre for the Public Understanding of Politics at the University of Sheffield - and launching an innovative inter-generational arts project this research will produce outputs that address each of these three challenges. This research will not - indeed cannot - come to any broad or sweeping conclusions and its findings will inevitably be contested but it will deliver theoretically informed policy-relevant research that moves the debate about cultural value forward in a positive and evidence-based manner.