Call for Papers: Cultural managers, their organizations and their networks in times of Crisis

For their Virtual Gathering an January 13, 2021 our friends from the Network Brokering Intercultural Exchange (BIE) are looking for papers and other innovative formats dealing with the questions of both importance and fragility of networks in times of economic, healt, racial, and environmental crisis. Submission deadline: November 16, 2020:
“The global pandemic has shown both the importance and the fragility of networks. What role can and do these networks play in times of economic, health, racial, and environmental crisis?” 

The Virtual Gathering of the Network Brokering Intercultural Exchange (BIE)
on January 13,2021:

“Cultural Managers, their organisations, and their networks in times of Crisis”  

Bringing international researchers together with arts and cultural practitioners and policymakers, the AHRC funded network Brokering Intercultural Exchange has aimed to build an understanding of the relationship of arts and cultural management practice and education to intercultural exchange – interaction between communities, institutions, and /or nations with different ‘values’ and perspectives and individuals with different social, economic, and religious backgrounds.

Arts and cultural managers working in the fine and performing arts and heritage engage with creative and aesthetic expressions – arts and cultural objects, exhibitions, and performances – that are inherently reflective of broader social as well as personal cultural ideas, knowledge, and values.
In directing, administering, and mediating arts and cultural expressions, arts and cultural managers work at the interface of the production and consumption of these creative and aesthetic expressions. In doing so, they contribute to how the terms and conditions for intercultural exchange are set both at home and abroad. 
In our Virtual Gathering 2021, we would like to build on what we have learned throughout the last four years of engaging within the BIE Network. We are particularly keen to learn about the role that cultural networks play within cultural management practice but also in education. Not only have networks as a hybrid form of organization gained increased importance over the last 30 years, the activity of networking itself has also become increasingly relevant – in such a way that many regard it as an existential competence for survival in the global labour market (Ibarra & Hunter, 2007, Rainie and Wellman, 2012). Stirred by digitization (Castells, 1996) and the success of social media, numerous international, national, and regional networks have been established since the 1990ties in the cultural sector (Staines, 1996; Cvjeticanin, 2011; Laaksonen, 2016; Steinkamp, 2013; Henze, 2018). The global pandemic has shown both the importance and the fragility of networks. What role can and do these networks play in times of economic, health, racial, and environmental crisis? 
We have identified three main topics that we would like to explore further: 
a) Cultural Managers, their organisations and networks facing the pandemic and the long-term consequences it will have on audiences, events, and work environments. 
We are looking for papers and other new and innovative formats that address questions such as:
● How do cultural organisations (museums, municipal departments, festival organisers) maximize the digital process to engage with wider, more diverse, and ultimately new and younger audiences at local level?
● Can digitization help promote the democratization of the sector by involving more people that were not able or willing to participate before the pandemic? Or is digitization causing an entrance barrier difficult for audiences to overcome (Henze, 2020)? What effects do digitalisation bring in terms of inequity and exclusion?
● How can networks act in solidarity with colleagues in countries adversely impacted by the pandemic?
● How do cultural norms, traditions, and assumptions travel as a result of the digitalization of practice resulting from the pandemic but also from international networks?
● What are the long-term consequences for the entire sector? How can networks help cultural managers and artists to create and/or find, for ex-ample, new funding/performance opportunities?
● What role can or should culture play when it comes to well-being and health issues? 

b) Cultural Managers, their organisations, and networks facing racial inequity and exclusion 

We are looking for papers and other new and innovative formats that address questions like these:
● In what ways do cultural managers and their organisation as well as networks confront institutional racism?
● What capacities exist within the design and management of arts and cultural management programmes to address racial issues?
● What role, if any, has the process of internationalization of arts and cultural management education played in this process?
● What are tools supported and funded by international networks for the collection, assessment, and review of global cultural policy and practice representative of local realities, including cultural conflicts and ‘culture wars’ that challenge nationalistic and / or state-driven representations of culture?
● To what degree do networks within and networks associated with academic programs in arts and cultural management and cultural policy studies reflect diversity, e.g. ability, gender, ethnicity, religious belief systems, and sexual orientation?
 
c) Cultural Managers, their organisations, and networks dealing with issues of sustainability. 
We are looking for papers and other new and innovative formats that address questions such as:
● How do cultural managers, their organisations, and networks deal with issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss, ecosystem degradation, and ocean acidification?
● What role should cultural managers, their organisations, and networks play in shaping an environmentally sustainable worldview (Moore & Tickell 2014)?

We welcome different presentation formats, which may include the following but are surely not limited to: 

● Traditional style presentations, 7 minutes presentation, 7 Minutes Q & A
● Group panel sessions, in which researchers and practitioners may come together to discuss a particular issue relevant to the seminar, 60 minutes maximum
● An artistic presentation
● Ph.D. colloquium – take the chance to share your research ideas with other Ph.D. students from around the Globe
● Elevator pitches – 3 minutes to present a specific idea and get chal-lenged by an international and interdisciplinary jury
● FuckedUpAfternoon – let us know about where and how you failed. What did not work out and why? We all know that this is how we really learn.
We welcome paper proposals from:
● researchers / academics
● arts and cultural managers
● masters and Ph.D. students
● artists
● networkers
● policymakers
Contributions need to be in English. Please submit the following for consideration:
● An abstract or summary of your proposed topic. No more than 500 words. Please indicate the format / style of your presentation and any relevant notes regarding how you or your team plans to present / facilitate discussion. Please provide a list of a few key readings/references.
● A biographical statement of approximately 100 words for each individual involved.  
Review criteria are: the originality of the proposal, the methodical approach as well as the application of the presentation to the aims of the conference. The scientific committee will make the final decision regarding selection and categorization. We are very much looking forward to your contributions! 
The deadline for submission is November 16, 2020. Speakers will be notified latest by December 1, 2020.
Please find the Call forBIEVirtualGathering2021pdf for 
Download here. 
Please submit to: raphaela.henze(at)hs‐heilbronn.de 
Conference chaired by: Prof. Dr. Raphaela Henze MBA, Heilbronn Univer-sity and students of the masters programme Economics, Culture, Leisure and Sports Management. 
Scientific Committee: Dr. Victoria Durrer, University College Dublin, Dr. Karsten Xuereb, University of Malta, Dr. Antonio C. Cuyler, Florida State University, Prof. Dr. Raphaela Henze MBA, Heilbronn University, Federico Escribal, National University of the Arts Buenos Aires, Dr. Zainab Musa, University of Maiduguri.