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Understanding Audiences: A Critical Review of Audience Research

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Audience Engagement in the Performing Arts

Part of the book series: New Directions in Cultural Policy Research ((NDCPR))

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Abstract

This chapter provides a critical overview of the existing literature on audience research and audience engagement. It surveys the seminal contributions to the rapidly emerging field of audience studies and classifies its recurrent themes into the following categories: the pacification of audiences; power, elitism and class; cultural policy, participation and co-creation; immersive performance; performance venues, spaces and places; performance as ritual; reception theory and semiotics; research methodologies; the audience experience; value and impact research; young audiences; arts marketing and management; audience engagement and enrichment. The aim of this taxonomy is to inform a new paradigm for audience studies in the context of the performing arts.

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  1. School Performance Cultural Industries, University of Leeds, Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK

    Ben Walmsley

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  1. Ben Walmsley
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Correspondence to Ben Walmsley .

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Walmsley, B. (2019). Understanding Audiences: A Critical Review of Audience Research. In: Audience Engagement in the Performing Arts. New Directions in Cultural Policy Research. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26653-0_2

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