The politics of cultural value: Towards an emancipatory framework

The purpose of this project is to work towards a rigorous and coherent interdisciplinary theoretical framework for the understanding of cultural value and its mode of operation within contemporary British society from the perspective of social justice. In this respect, it will push current thinking and research around cultural value beyond the generally predominant focus on a celebration of the various benefits that have been attributed to engagement with the arts and culture (and the value thus generated for both individuals and society) to encompass the more problematic and less savoury aspects of the cultural value problematic.

The project's intellectual starting point is the adoption of a social-critical approach to the study of the arts and culture predicated on a focus on the social production of the aesthetic and of the value attributed to it. Key to the understanding of processes of cultural valuation as socially produced is the corollary that the same goes for the nature of processes by which cultural value is denied. More interestingly, this project will explore the extent to which cultural value works in ambiguous ways, so that the same cultural artefact might, on the one hand, generate a variety of positive benefits for the economy, for certain groups or individuals and, on the other, create 'negative value' in the form of symbolic violence and stigmatisation of other social and/or ethnic groups. The project, therefore, aims to grapple with these profound tensions at the very heart of cultural value which of course have important implications both for the development of a rigorous cultural value research agenda and for the public policy discourses that are closely linked to processes of valuation.

This project therefore aims to be field-building, in opening cultural policy studies to the as of yet underexplored area of the ways in which cultural policies can be envisaged as part of a genuinely emancipatory political project. It builds on the work of social theorist Erik Olin Wright (2010) on the development of 'real utopias' that can map the way to a more just future, and aims at 'rebuilding a sense of possibility for emancipatory social change' by considering what a cultural policy perspective might offer to this endeavour.

The question of how the authority to bestow or deny cultural value is socially stratified will be explored through a combination of theory building work and a case study, which will test the explanatory efficacy of the new theoretical framework, as well as its relevance to policy making and current professional arts practice. The case study at the heart of the project is Our BIG Real Gypsy Lives, a participatory arts project in Lincolnshire that has just concluded. Its aim was the recognition of the value of Gypsies' and Travellers' tangible and intangible heritage in the face of the systematic stigmatisation and cultural value denial this group has endured via highly popular and successful reality TV programmes such as My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. It was produced and delivered by Cultural Solutions, a Lincoln-based independent cultural consultancy, which are a partner in this project. This choice of case study allows for the research to focus on the case of Gypsies and Travellers living in England, who are a very interesting social group to look at in relation to both cultural value and social justice concerns. Qualitative empirical work will be carried out in the form of semi-structured in-depth interviews with the team and local charity that delivered the project, its funders and key Gypsy and Traveller participants.
The case study, and the focus on an ethnic group widely identified as 'cultural value-poor', will allow the project to explore what thinking on cultural value might contribute to the goal of a redistribution of cultural authority and the power to bestow value, alongside more traditional forms of emancipatory politics focusing on economic redistribution.

This is inherently an outward looking project whose ultimate ambition is to contribute a theoretical framework and the outlines of models of practice that can support a quest for emancipatory social change. In this respect, then, 'impact' (as in emancipatory change of policy frameworks and professional practice) is at the very heart of this project's aspiration.

This project will be most relevant to three main groups outside of the academy, so that among them is where we expect impact to take place:

1. Participatory arts organisations and individual creative practitioners who specialise in work involving communities that face systematic 'misrecognition'; the bodies that fund them, and the local charities and community groups that work with them.
2. Local, national and international governmental as well as non-governmental organisations whose aim is to enhance social justice within the localities in which they work, who might be interested to find out more about how participatory arts and cultural products/projects might either hinder or facilitate their work.
3. Governments (at national, but especially local level) and other agencies, private and public, which fund, regulate, and support the activities of the two constituencies above.

These groups will be targeted via a three-pronged strategy: a) production of an open access project report aimed at a broad readership; b) targeted dissemination of project outputs and c) direct engagement with representatives of the three groups identified above.

a) A project report will be co-written by Dr Belfiore and the project partners specifically to raise awareness of the project and its findings among non-academics. It will be freely available to download from Cultural Solutions' web site and from dedicated project pages on the University of Warwick's website and on The #culturalvalue Initiative site (www.culturalvalueinitiative.org), Dr Belfiore's curated blog and research resource. The report will also be published in hard copy for the benefit of smaller arts organisations, community groups, charities, schools and individuals for whom online access might be problematic. In order to track the reach and impact of the report, in addition to download statistics from Google analytics, the Cultural Solutions partners have volunteered to informally monitor and track responses to the report among the practitioners and community organisations they have working relationships with for a period of six months after the completion of the project.

b) Dissemination plans will reflect the aim of the project to reach out beyond universities and will include an article in an arts professional publication (such as ArtsProfessional or Mailout), and a coherent social media strategy to communicate research findings as widely as possible to charities, NGOs, campaigning and community groups, artists and the general public. Dr Belfiore, Cultural Solutions and The #culturalvalue Initiative all have very active twitter feeds which will be harnessed for publicity purposes. The blog linked to www.culturalvalueinitiative.org will be a key dissemination tool via dedicated blogs by the project team, and invited contributions from artists, researchers and voluntary groups working in relating areas.

c) The end-of-project workshop will offer an opportunity for direct engagement with key non-academic players involved in carrying out and funding emancipatory participatory arts initiatives, and this is where, more realistically, the germs of real impact can be sown: implementation of research insights in actual policy and practice will be discussed with those who are best placed to carry it out, thus ensuring the project brings about at least the seeds of lasting changes in both thinking and practice. In order to record and track impact, Dr Belfiore will contact all workshop participants 2 months and 6 months after completion of the project to follow up on impact.