Research Article

Democratization of Culture or Cultural Democracy? Theater in Germany and England

Birgit Mandel

2024

Critical Issues on Arts Engagement versus the Non-Visitor
Journal of Cultural Management and Cultural Policy

P. 33–51

DOI: 10.14361/zkmm-2024-0102

Language: German

Abstract

In Germany, as in England, only a minority of the population, predominantly the higher educated, attends state-subsidized theaters. For theaters, attracting audiences from hitherto underrepresented groups of the population is not just a matter of increasing attendance in the short term, but also of securing their legitimacy in the longer term. For cultural policy, the challenge is to guarantee a higher degree of participatory justice. The article discusses the perspectives of a participation-oriented audience development against the background of the national regimes of theater governance in Germany and England, which are characterized by different models and legitimation patterns of theater funding.

Keywords

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