<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>In 2012 the Danish city of Aarhus was appointed European Capital of Culture for 2017. The appointment was based on an ambitious programme that – under the headline Rethink – tried to set an agenda of societal transformation, mainly by seeking to increase the impact of art and culture, and to enhance civic participation at all levels of society. In this article we examine one of the first attempts of Aarhus 2017 to realize these grand ambitions: ‘The Playful Society’, a series of micro grants aimed at enabling young people to make their own art/culture projects and participate in the overall Rethink project. Informed by theoretical distinctions between different forms of participation, and the diverse interests invested in participatory processes, we investigate how the young cultural entrepreneurs and the artistic administrators of Aarhus 2017 separately, in conjunction, and sometimes even in opposition to each other, translated these overall ambitions into practice. We argue that they illuminate some of the dilemmas of contemporary cultural participation, including the importance of questioning who participates in what, how they do it, and in what context.</p></abstract>

In 2012 the Danish city of Aarhus was appointed European Capital of Culture for 2017. The appointment was based on an ambitious programme that – under the headline Rethink – tried to set an agenda of societal transformation, mainly by seeking to increase the impact of art and culture, and to enhance civic participation at all levels of society. In this article we examine one of the first attempts of Aarhus 2017 to realize these grand ambitions: ‘The Playful Society’, a series of micro grants aimed at enabling young people to make their own art/culture projects and participate in the overall Rethink project. Informed by theoretical distinctions between different forms of participation, and the diverse interests invested in participatory processes, we investigate how the young cultural entrepreneurs and the artistic administrators of Aarhus 2017 separately, in conjunction, and sometimes even in opposition to each other, translated these overall ambitions into practice. We argue that they illuminate some of the dilemmas of contemporary cultural participation, including the importance of questioning who participates in what, how they do it, and in what context.

Rethinking Participation and Re-enacting Its Dilemmas? — Aarhus 2017 and “The Playful Society”

PhD and associate professor in Aesthetics and Culture at Aarhus University

at the Aarhus University IDEAS Pilot Centre

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This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

In 2012 the Danish city of Aarhus was appointed European Capital of Culture for 2017. The appointment was based on an ambitious programme that – under the...

Rethinking Participation and Re-enacting Its Dilemmas? — Aarhus 2017 and “The Playful Society”

Published Online: Mar 30, 2021

Page range: 48 - 66

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7146/tjcp.v2i2.22918

Keywords
Participation, Capital of Culture, Youth, Cultural Entrepreneurship

© 2021 Birgit Eriksson et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Rethinking Participation and Re-enacting Its Dilemmas? — Aarhus 2017 and “The Playful Society”

Published Online: Mar 30, 2021

Page range: 48 - 66

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7146/tjcp.v2i2.22918

KeywordsParticipation, Capital of Culture, Youth, Cultural Entrepreneurship

© 2021 Birgit Eriksson et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Participation, Capital of Culture, Youth, Cultural Entrepreneurship