Performing civic cultures: Participatory public art and its publics

Abstract

This research investigated the performances of participatory public art as ways of taking political agency in contemporary democracy. We considered these ‘maximalist’ forms of participation – ‘multi-sited’, as the language of democratic theory suggests, in both the political sphere of art and the formal arena of politics – as ways of doing, acting, and performing citizenship in democratic societies. Drawing upon the ‘cultural turn’ in citizenship studies, we assumed civic cultures as central variables to explain these forms of political agency. Referring to media audience research, we adopted an analytical framework to explore the artists’ civic cultures that are in action in public urban spaces. The analysis focused on performances of citizenship developed in Sardinia (Italy). The research shed light on the artists’ knowledge and values, the multiple layers of audience participation envisaged in their practices of communication, their (dis)trust towards institutions and non-elite actors in civil society, and the civic identities they perform in contemporary societies.

Where is the public of ‘networked publics’? A critical analysis of the theoretical limitations of online publics research

“…As a challenge to such commonplace views, the sociological public-theoretical tradition emphasises that it may be possible to identify elements of a debating public also in formations that at first seem to promote consensual thinking and conformist behaviour. Moreover, by focusing on the kinds of norms and expectations that debating users reproduce in their discursive online practices, research could develop greater understanding of how networked publics may or may not express democratic ideals and embody civic cultures (see Hermes, 2020; Iannelli and Marelli, 2019; Pell, 2014). Finally, the critical cultural tradition on the public points to the need to subject the formation of online publics, and the institutional-technological infrastructures that shape them, under critical and normative scrutiny.…”

Politična participacija mladih onkraj volitev: konceptualni premisleki in izzivi proučevanja

“…V kontekstu redefiniranja državljanstva pa Marelli in Iannelli (2019) raziskujeta performanse oziroma participativne umetnosti kot načine konstituiranja državljanstva in politične participacije. Izhajajoč iz tako imenovanega »kulturnega obrata« v teorijah državljanstva, se študija fokusira na performanse državljanstva na Sardiniji (2009Sardiniji ( -2014.…”