Journal of Cultural Management 2019 (2)

http://dx.doi.org/10.14361/zkmm-2019-0201

• Abstract

  On the part of cultural policy and -pedagogics, there exists deficits for some time, especially in the performing arts at the level of high culture, which apparently only (still) appeal to a very limited audience. With programmatic procedures such as audience development and concept-based cultural policy, there are innovative solutions for a broader audience appeal, which often conceal normative socio-political interests. For this reason, this paper attempts to contextualize the construct of audience used in the current debate and to reconstruct its genesis in order to cultural-political functions that can still be found today, as well as to the continuing techniques of discipline and conditioning.

Journal of Cultural Management 2019 (2)

http://dx.doi.org/10.14361/zkmm-2019-0202

• Abstract

  Currently leading German theatres have come under intense criticism over questions of artistic leadership. In this paper I shall explore the deeper underlying institutional questions that underpin such debates and ask if they represent a structural crisis besetting our understanding of the modern performing arts. I will revisit Max Weber’s theory of charismatic authority and explore how it became the guiding principle of Nazi cultural policy and examine its institutional continuity after 1945. The first two parts of the article revisit Max Weber’s theory of charismatic authority; the third part sketches the historical background of the German office of Intendant with its roots in both feudal and bureaucratic structures; the final section returns to the current crises at the Munich Kammerspiele and the Berlin Volksbühne.

Journal of Cultural Management 2019 (2)

http://dx.doi.org/10.14361/zkmm-2019-0203

• Abstract

  Private theatres play a marginal role in public cultural debates, but they have a larger number of visits each year than publicly funded theatres (“Schauspielhaus”). In which ways the audiences differ in social characteristics, interests and cultural engagement is analyzed in the article, based on German audience and population surveys. It turns out that large overlaps exist between the audiences and that the differences in characteristics are gradual rather than basic. People who attend performances in private theatres are somewhat older and have a somewhat lower education than people who go to a “Schauspielhaus”. Moreover they are somewhat less interested in the high culture and less culturally engaged. Compared to the general population the theater audience as a whole is slightly above average in age. It is not known to which extent private theatre audiences have a greater share nowadays in theatre audiences than in earlier years. There are some indications that they might have undergone the same transformation in relationship to age as the publicly funded theatres: from an overrepresentation of the younger to an overrepresentation of the older ones.

Journal of Cultural Management 2019 (2)

http://dx.doi.org/10.14361/zkmm-2019-020

• Abstract

  The article is based on the study Art and Power in the Theater (2018), which was conducted among nearly 2,000 participants – primarily artistic staff and performers. The article analyzes the topics of power and abuse in the theater organizations. Key findings include that over 50 % of participants have experienced at least one abuse of power in their careers. In addition, the social demands of employees in many theaters are simply ignored, while the interests of the directors are placed at the center. The theaters are structurally organized to promote the abuse of power. Moreover, mission statements and codes of conduct are lacking to regulate the use of power. It is not expected, that their directors are trained in human resources, management or social skills. Any senior theater artist, who has the necessary artistic prerequisites and the right networks, is considered to be capable of leadership in theaters. Power becomes a management tool, consolidating hierarchical structures and the director-centered governance model. It thus becomes a structural and organizational concept in the German theater landscape.

Journal of Cultural Management 2019 (2)

• Abstract

  Although communication is inherent in leadership, it has not yet been explicitly investigated in cultural management research. This explorative study addresses leadership in theatres from a communication perspective. It is based on the theoretical approaches of communicative leader-member-exchange and aesthetic leadership. In 37 interviews, first- and second-level managers in German theatres show a high level of awareness for the importance of their communication. Nevertheless, internal communication appears to be weakly structured in terms of strategic organizational communication, even though it seems to become more systematic. The integration of conflicting organizational areas (especially the aesthetic, technical/workshops and administration/financial area) is regarded as a decisive communicative leadership-task both in short-term (moderating, negotiating) and in long-term (permanent dialogue/ fostering mutual understanding) perspectives. Furthermore, the results contribute to refine the approach developed and point ways for future research on leadership communication in theatres.

Journal of Cultural Management 2019 (2)

http://dx.doi.org/10.14361/zkmm-2019-0206

• Abstract

  Theatre is a world in itself and claims to make the whole world its subject. In the eighteenth century it emerged as a modern corporation to improve society and to serve as a “moral institution”. Backed by enhanced technology and organization the theatre thus became part of a series of modern organizations committed to the ideals of humanity and rationality, but based on rigid disciplinary power as described by Foucault. Based on the situation in German-speaking countries, this article describes the conflicting ambivalence between negotiated contents and working practice within the framework of largely unchanged power structures. Using Lewis A. Coser’s concept of the ‘greedy institution’, the theatre proves to be a possessive institution that succeeds in capturing the attention of its members to the highest degree and exploiting them for their higher goals.

Journal of Cultural Management 2019 (2)

http://dx.doi.org/10.14361/zkmm-2019-0207

• Abstract

  Many discourses in research on inclusive theater as well as in artistic practice have in recent years abandoned the notion of mere (social) participation of people with disabilities and concentrated more on the investigation of independent and artistic forms of representation of people with disabilities in theater productions. The European Cultural Policy funding policy within the European Union responds to this change by partially promoting projects that artistically shape this change, without, however, altering the rhetoric used in the promotional programs for artistic participation and inclusion. Therefore, no comprehensive paradigm shift has yet taken place, which would adequately consider the aesthetic and performative self-understanding in contemporary inclusive theater and recognize it as political positions. The aim of the present contribution is to understand to what extent this transformation process theoretically manifests itself in existing research positions. The article also examines the extent to which European funding programs already play a measurable role in this field through their semantics.

Journal of Cultural Management 2019 (2)

http://dx.doi.org/10.14361/zkmm-2019-0208