• Time for Cultural Mediation
  • Foreword by Carmen Mörsch
  • Foreword by Andrew Holland
• 1 What is Cultural Mediation?
  Quick Reads:
  • 1.0 Intro
  • 1.1 “Kulturvermittlung” as collective term in German-speaking regions
  • 1.2 Médiation culturelle
  • 1.3 English terminology
  • 1.4 Italian terminology
  • 1.CP Changing Perspectives
  • 1.RL For Reading at Leisure
• 2 Cultural Mediation for Whom?
  Quick Reads:
  • 2.0 Intro
  • 2.1 Target-group categories
  • 2.2 Critique of target-group thinking
  • 2.3 Other approaches to defining audiences
  • 2.4 Cultural mediation for institutional development and renewal
  • 2.CP Changing Perspectives
  • 2.RL For Reading at Leisure
• 3 What is Transmitted?
  Quick Reads:
  • 3.0 Intro
  • 3.1 Works and productions as subject-matter
  • 3.2 Artistic techniques as subject-matter
  • 3.3 Institutions as subject-matter
  • 3.4 Art as a system as subject matter
  • 3.5 Artistic processes in business
  • 3.6 Artistic processes in social, pedagogic and activist contexts
  • 3.7 Learning methods as subject-matter
  • 3.CP Changing Perspectives
  • 3.RL For Reading at Leisure
• 4 How is Cultural Mediation Carried Out?
  Quick Reads:
  • 4.0 Intro
  • 4.1 Participation level: receptive
  • 4.2 Participation level: interactive
  • 4.3 Participation level: participative
  • 4.4 Participation level: collaborative
  • 4.5 Participation level: demand-based
  • 4.6 Teaching and learning concepts: instructionist
  • 4.7 Teaching and learning concepts: action-oriented
  • 4.8 Teaching and learning concepts: constructivist and social-constructivist
  • 4.CP Changing Perspectives
  • 4.RL For Reading at Leisure
• 5 What Does Cultural Mediation Do?
  Quick Reads:
  • 5.0 Intro
  • 5.1 Affirmative function of cultural mediation
  • 5.2 Reproductive function of cultural mediation
  • 5.3 Deconstructive function of cultural mediation
  • 5.4 Reformative function of cultural mediation
  • 5.5 Transformative function of cultural mediation
  • 5.CP Changing Perspectives
  • 5.RL For Reading at Leisure
• 6 Cultural Mediation: Why (Not)?
  Quick Reads:
  • 6.0 Intro
  • 6.1 Rationale: cultural mediation has an influence on the economy
  • 6.2 Rationale: cultural mediation promotes cognitive performance
  • 6.3 Rationale: Expanding cultural mediation as a matter of fiscal responsibility
  • 6.4 Rationale: Cultural mediation as an instrument for inclusion
  • 6.5 Rationale: The arts as universal educational good
  • 6.6 Rationale: Cultural mediation as means to actively contribute to shaping the arts
  • 6.7 Rationale: Cultural mediation to compensate for social injustice
  • 6.8 Objections to cultural mediation and its promotion
  • 6.CP Changing Perspectives
  • 6.RL For Reading at Leisure
• 7 Who “does” Cultural Mediation?
  Quick Reads:
  • 7.0 Intro
  • 7.1 Occupation: cultural mediator
  • 7.2 Conditions of employment in cultural mediation
  • 7.3 (Swiss) Training options and professional associations of cultural mediators
  • 7.4 Volunteer work in cultural mediation
  • 7.5 Cultural mediation as a research field
  • 7.6 Funding of cultural mediation in Switzerland
  • 7.CP Changing Perspectives
  • 7.RL For Reading at Leisure
• 8 Good Cultural Mediation?
  Quick Reads:
  • 8.0 Intro
  • 8.1 Quality in cultural mediation: current activities
  • 8.2 Critiques of quality management in cultural mediation
  • 8.3 Attempt to define a framework of criteria for evaluating cultural mediation
  • 8.4 Criteria for a primarily affirmative cultural mediation
  • 8.5 Criteria for a primarily reproductive cultural mediation
  • 8.6 Criteria for a primarily deconstructive cultural mediation
  • 8.7 Criteria for a primarily transformative cultural mediation
  • 8.CP Changing Perspectives
  • 8.RL For Reading at Leisure
• 9 Transmitting Cultural Mediation?
  Quick Reads:
  • 9.0 Intro
  • 9.1 Guiding questions for use in the documentation of cultural mediation
  • 9.2 Challenges in transmitting cultural mediation
  • 9.3 Cultural mediation in this publication
  • 9.CP Changing Perspectives
  • 9.RL For Reading at Leisure
• Service
  Case Studies:
  • SC Intro
  • SC.1 Case Study 1
  • SC.2 Case Study 2
  • Glossary
  • Resource Pool
  • Literature and Links
  • List of bookmarks
  • PDF Download
  • Bibliographic information and legal notice

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Download text as PDF ↓ Case Studies

Intro

Purposes of the Case Studies The two texts that follow describe and analyse four cultural mediation projects in the domain of literature taken from four different countries. These case studies are intended to give concrete form to the issues discussed in the texts “Quick Reads” and thus to demonstrate how this publication can be used as an analytical instrument for classifying and developing cultural mediation projects. The case studies do not give equal attention to all of the key issues discussed in this publication; instead, they focus on the aspects which appear particularly significant in relation to the specific project under analysis. Links connect points in the analyses to the relevant discussion in the main texts. The case studies are structured as comparative analyses of two projects each. These analyses are based on publicly available informational material and make no claim to comprehensiveness. It was possible to conduct interviews with the projects’ initiators in order to clarify individual questions, but nonetheless, this approach does have its limitations. For instance, the case studies do not provide detailed information about actual implementation of the projects, except where the documentation of the projects made that feasible. Thus the analyses were unable to address aspects in which the project as presented in its documentation may have differed from what actually happened during implementation.

Selection of Projects

The projects studied were taken from the literary field because cultural mediation in that domain appears to be less developed than that in other artistic domains. This choice was deliberate and motivated in part by the desire to increase the visibility of cultural mediation in the literary domain. The following criteria underlay the selection of cases:

• All cases selected had to be examples of interesting cultural mediation practices, despite their limitations or criticisms.
• They had to be representative of approaches used in literature mediation while also being useful for analysis of practices in other domains.
• They had to be sufficiently complex to permit a meaningful discussion of the various contexts for which a project can be relevant, and the questions which arise as a result.
• Their documentation had to be extensive enough to allow a good reconstruction, notwithstanding the constraints on the analyses mentioned above.

One of the four projects selected was a Swiss project. The focus in selecting the international projects was on contexts which have had a substantial influence on the evolution of the Swiss field. Accordingly, one German project, one English project and one French project are discussed.

Discussion and Analysis of the Projects

The analyses of the projects are based on the nine sets of issues discussed in this publication. No attempt has been made to retain the sequence in which these issues are discussed in the chapters of this publication; instead they are addressed as they arise in connection with discussion of the projects. Individual passages are linked with the relevant “Quick Reads?” and the guiding questions are indicated beside the relevant passages. The discussion sections point to possibilities for changes or modifications in practice with respect to the individual projects. The analyses also address the contexts in which each of the projects should be viewed. By providing a comparative analysis of two projects in each case study in the light of the issues discussed in the main part of the publication, the authors hope to enable the reader to arrive at a clear understanding of the factors and differences which should be considered when attempting a qualitative evaluation of cultural mediation. Unanswered questions and omissions that seemed relevant for an evaluation of the project but were not addressed in the documentation are discussed and summarized at the end of each analysis.