29 participants from 14 countries.
The main objective of the meeting was to present the theory of research methodology for the 20 selected Cultural Recorders and at the same time do practical training and exercises enabling the Cultural Recorders to use the methodology during their upcoming research period.
A steering group meeting were held to present scientific positioning and coordination of the activities in the project. The meeting also addressed other relevant issues including financial status, planning of structure and content of the final conference and the dissemination of the research results.
Engage in a collaborative investigation of what a cultural centre is and what the role of participation is in the centres.
The Seminar included social and work related networking. For this reason official representatives from the partnering organizations were invited to speak: Ivo Peeters (President -ENCC) , Peter Ørting, ( President - KHiD), Ole G. Jørgensen (Manager Godbanen) and Pia Buchardt (ECoC 2017 – Aarhus)
A guided tour and presentation of the extended and complex Cultural Production Center Godsbanen was organised for all participants.
At the seminar the participants engaged with the five methodologies that they will be asked to use during their participatory research in the visited cultural centre. A “methodology suitcase” was proposed and the researchers introduced the methods and organised workshops for each method.
The five methods proposed were:
- “Interview”: We will discuss how to create interview guides, the difference between research questions and interview questions, how to transcribe interviews, and we will experiment with doing structured, but dynamic interviews.
- “Observation”: This methodology requires a sense of “being a fly on the wall”, which can be surprisingly challenging, when you are engaging in a field – cultural centres – in which you are the experts.
Get to know each other through informal exchange, learn more about the priorities and experiences of each others
- “Autoethnography”: This methodology is in some sense the opposite of the observational methodology. In autoethnography you use yourself as the starting point for your observations and research, and you will thus be asked to use your own sensations, memories and emotions as a resource.
- “Document analysis”: Collecting and categorizing existing documents (e.g. programs, posters, policy documents, mission papers) is crucial in understanding the range of activities that a cultural centre conducts as well as its financial and legislative basis.
- “Participatory mapping”: This experimental methodology serves to create an overview of the entire cultural centre. In collaboration with staff or volunteers you will, by engaging in participatory mapping, try to map the infrastructure and spatial organization of the cultural centre, for instance by understanding when, where and how hubs emerge, who participates in which spaces, when participation emerge, and who initiates and sustains it?
