Call for Contributions to a Journal Special Edition dedicated to Critical Reflections about the Relationship between Arts and Management
Journal of Arts and Communities ISSN: 17571936, published by Intellect
Guest Editor: Martin Beirne, University of Glasgow
Deadline: Full papers should be submitted no later than 30th June, 2012.
The purpose of this Special Issue is to promote critical reflection and establish a constructive dialogue about cross-boundary relations, and indeed tensions, between management and the arts. Despite a long history of exchanges, alliances, links and associations, the connections between communities of managers and artists, researchers and practitioners, have been uneasy, frosty and often fraught. They also remain open for development, as a basis for generating fresh insights about the nature of organizations and the challenges that confront their populations, though also for practical interventions that offer constructive routes towards performance improvements and better or more progressive experiences. Artists have a strong tradition of challenging management ideas, orientations and preoccupations, and have delivered some very powerful critiques of top-down, quasi-scientific management orthodoxy. The Detroit murals by Diego Rivera, and the Frank McGuinness play about the working lives of Factory Girls, provide two very telling examples. Arts organisations and workers have also been on the receiving end of management orthodoxy as funding agencies have tied strings to their awards, insisting that indicators of ‘good’ management practice enhance confidence about outcomes and value for money (Beirne and Knight, 2004). Unfortunately, this has been associated with a tendency to import management prescriptions from the commercial sector, often with disruptive consequences and poor experiences from dealing with consultants and purveyors of universal solutions who fail to differentiate between the principles, priorities, aims and working patterns of organizations, arts or otherwise (Beirne and Knight, 2002). It has also generated something of a backlash, intolerance and underground critique of management and managers (Protherough and Pick, 2002).
By contrast, some of the most prominent management commentators in recent times have invoked idealized images of art-making as a platform to challenge orthodox thinking about job design and employee relations, and to claim space for skill enhancement and participative ways of managing and organizing. Tom Peters and Rosabeth Kanter have presented variations on the argument that artists tend to have a high degree of autonomy in their work that is functional for the delivery of good quality art, reasoning that this has wider applicability in a commercial world that puts a premium on the responsiveness, creativity and voluntary commitment of employees. Conceding control and re-modelling management on artistic rather than industrial traditions is a message that has been well-received in some major corporations, though usually in the absence of any detailed analysis of art-making per se (Schiuma, 2011).
Unfortunately, available evidence that aims to illuminate management connections to arts-based practices is also rather mixed. Strong endorsements (Schiuma, 2011; Chong, 2002) and pronouncements via agencies such as Arts and Business contrast markedly with accounts of faddish and token projects that involve managers as ‘users’ wrenching ideas and practices out of the arts to ‘do a bit of theatre’ or stage a performance for team-building purposes or to boost motivation (Beirne and Knight, 2002). For authors such a Clarke and Mangham (2004), theatre in the commercial world of staff development is too often impoverished by reduction to a management technology, aided and abetted by theatre companies eager to tap fresh income opportunities, regardless of any complicity in management dilution of art.
This Special Issues provides an intellectual space to explore – theoretically, practically and in policy terms – these tension-laden yet underdeveloped linkages between management and the arts. It is positioned for multidisciplinary and international contributions, and to promote a constructive dialogue across subject boundaries. Submissions are welcome on any of the following topics, although this is intended to be an indicative rather than an exhaustive list:
. Artists and arts workers experiences of managerialism or of ‘being managed’, constructively or otherwise.
. Coherent and considered critiques of management or business influences on the arts, or of arts-based initiatives in commercial, public sector or voluntary organizations.
. Reflections about collaborative ventures between artists and managers, for example, via creative contributions either to artistic projects or management initiatives in educational, developmental, organizational or market contexts.
. Reflections about direct involvement and the fortunes and effectiveness of artists as managers in arts or other organizations.
. Analyses of the possible contribution of arts to the development of fair, just or ethical management and leadership, especially in cross-cultural contexts.
. Empirical (especially case and action research) studies that have transparent theoretical and practical/policy implications are particularly welcomed.
The guest editor is happy to provide feedback on proposed submissions, and can be reached at the follow email address: Martin.Beirne@glasgow.ac.uk. Summary proposals will be considered until the end of February 2012, and follow the formal review process when worked into a full submission.
Contact and Submission Details: Submissions should be 5000-7000 words long, excluding references. Please refer to the publisher’s guidelines: http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/misc/contributornotes.pdf
Contributions to this Special Issue should be sent initially to the guest editor who will forward shortlisted papers to the Editorial Board for the peer review process. The special edition is intended for publication during the first half of 2013.
References
Beirne, M. and Knight, S. (2007) ‘From Community Theatre to Critical Management Studies: A Dramatic Contribution to Reflective Learning?’, Management Learning, Vol 38, No 5, November, p. 591-611.
Beirne, M. and Knight, S. (2004) ‘The ‘Art’ of Reflective Management: Dramatic Insights from Scottish Community Theatre’, The International Journal of Arts Management, Vol 6. No 2, p.33-43
Beirne, M. and Knight, S. (2002) ‘Principles and Consistent Management in the Arts: Lessons From British Theatre’, The International Journal of Cultural Policy, Vol 8, No 1, p. 75-89.
Clark, T. And Mangham, I. (2004) ‘From Dramaturgy to Theatre as Technology’, Journal of Management Studies, Vol 41, No1, p.37-59.
Chong, D. (2002) Arts Management, Routledge.
Protherough, R. And Pick, J. (2002) Managing Britannian: Culture and Management in Modern Britain, Edgeways.
Schiuma, G. (2011) The Value of Arts for Business, Cambridge Uiversity Press.
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