Networks as Third Spaces for Community Engagement

Stirred inter alia by digitization and the success of social media, numerous international, national, and regional networks have been established since the 1990s in the cultural sector (Staines, 1996; Cvjetičanin, 2011; Laaksonen, 2016; Steinkamp, 2013; Henze, 2018). Some of these networks - and these will be the ones this text primarily focuses on - are mainly interested in shaping their immediate surrounding and neighbourhood. 

 

This text presents some preliminary findings from empirical research that was conducted in order to gather information about the functioning of cultural networks. 70 cultural networks were chosen randomly in summer 2020 among organisations that a) called themselves networks either in their title or in the explanations they gave about their work and b) featured a presence on the internet, which made sure that they do have at least a certain degree of professionalism and wish to interact and communicate with a broader community and different stakeholders. The networks chosen present a broad variety according to their organisational structure, size, aims, and goals as well as members. This quantitative study, to which 33 networks within Germany responded, offers insights inter alia the networks’ financial as well as organisational structure and how the networks enhance their members involvement. 

 

 

What stuck out immediately and directly at the beginning was how especially those networks with a relatively narrow regional scope responded to the call for participation. They tended to comment that they are highly interested in receiving the results of this research in order to help them advance their activities and become more sustainable in the long-run. It became also apparent that in many cases it was the initiative of one or two persons that kick-started the network striving for the strength of week ties as Granovetter (1973) has describes this phenomenon already in the 1970ties, in many cases not even with the aim of starting something that would survive longer than a particular project or even changes of members and participants. It is mainly the founders who bring in their most of the time personal but also professional networks.

 

Even after a couple of years of existence many networkers explained that the way they seek new members is by word of mouth and through their projects because the personal interaction and knowing each other is important particularly when it comes to building long-term relationships and trust that inspires even more participation. 

 

These first reactions and responses are exceptional because in cultural management the link between cultural networks and participatory cultural projects seems to be neglected. Articles on cultural networks - especially those in more rural areas - as third spaces (Bhabha, 1984) or on particular funding programmes for them are still relatively rare.  

 

 

Several networks are hidden champions in their respective regions with a vast group of highly engaged and motivated people who know their neighbourhood and region well and have access to places that allow for a variety of formats and that do not have the entry barriers of established cultural institutions. It seems time they bring the buzz around networks, community engagement and third spaces as well as third places (Oldenburg, 1989) together.

 

We have focused for long on what cultural institutions - particularly the established and in many countries heavily publicly funded ones - can do when it comes to audience development and, more currently, when it comes to community engagement and empowerment. However, we have unfortunately marginalized those who are already out there reaching out to diverse communities successfully, providing safe spaces to think, experiment and to be creative as well as in many cases physical places where this can take place in interaction with others.  

 

 

What is needed is the ability to identify communicators, to literally speak in a variety of languages (Henze, 2020), to be trustworthy in the sense that you will not disappear the moment it gets difficult (Henze, 2018 a, 405), to function as a mentor and moderator, to allow and foster creative ideas that seem unpopular, to accept and enhance the fusion of styles, art forms but also traditions. Or as Timm-Bottos and Reilly (2015, 5) call it: "cultivate skills that promote collaborative engagement and participatory stances that are grounded in an experience of working in solidarity with community.” Service Learning, relatively popular in North America and unfortunately less so in Europe, can enhance the necessary skills of cultural management students (Cuyler, 2018; Timm-Bottos & Reilly, 2015).

 

All these are skills are somehow interpersonal. Skills that have to do with digitization need to be added. The internet obviously provides an amazing space for collaboration, even one that is able to overcome borders, at least to a certain extent, provided that people have or are allowed by their respective governments to access the internet and to acquire trustworthy information (Henze, 2020 a). Despite some obvious downsides, the internet is a third space, and it does not come as a surprise that this space is inhabited by innovative artists and creatives already. For example, the inspiring ‘Third Space Network’ set up by media artist Randall Packer in the USA is an artist channel that is for years operating, doing inter alia life broadcastings and events, and inspires imaginative action and creative dialogue in the third space. When third places for different reasons like, for instance, the Corona pandemic are not or no longer available, third spaces became even more attractive. 

 

 

What follows from this for cultural management research is the need for more research on how networks function because networks are transforming the public sphere and with it democracy itself (Friedland, 1996). We need to find ways to support networks to run art and culture more sustainably because they are enormous resources not only of enthusiastic people but also of knowledge and expertise.