Abstract
Event organizers tend to seek collaboration with different actors, both as a way to reach legitimization and as a possibility to reach out for resources that would otherwise be unavailable or too costly to achieve. In this chapter, we examine how participation is interpreted and enacted in iterative urban events. We argue that the institutional logics informing stakeholders’ views and meaning of participation affect the governance of participatory cultural events and the evolution of the activities proposed by event organizers. Based on the longitudinal analysis of an iterative participative cultural initiative (IPCI) taking place in Milano since 2012, our work contributes to the understanding of how IPCIs are structured and evolve. The emphasis on the interplay between different institutional logics associated with the meaning of participation and the governance and activities related to the cultural initiatives sheds light on the specificity and the intrinsic fragility of IPCI where participation becomes overtime a resource—if successfully managed—or liability in itself. At the same time, though, it highlights the incredible potential of participative models in creating distributed value across very different stakeholders.
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Notes
- 1.
The drop in the number of events during 2015 was due to the presence of Expo in Milano and to the occupation of several locations with initiatives associated with it. 2012 opened with 437 events, which rose to 1600 in 2019.
- 2.
Castello Sforzesco is a castle built in the fifteenth century by Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, on the remnants of a fourteenth-century fortification. Extensively rebuilt by Luca Beltrami in 1891–1905, it now houses several of the city’s museums and art collections.
- 3.
There was a common agreement among interviewees on this narrative (Founder 1 and 2, Key actor 2, 3 and 5).
- 4.
Here as well interviewees largely agreed (all founders and Key Actors 1 and 5).
- 5.
Milano has been developing two formats for cultural events: “City” format is generally participatory in nature and involves many non-profit organisations. The benchmark has been Piano City, a concept of Berlin-based pianist Andreas Kern brought to Milano in 2012. “Week” format includes “off” initiatives around a relevant fair and the benchmark has been FuoriSalone. Born in the 1970s along with a few side initiatives organised during the annual design and furniture fair (Salone del Mobile) and held in the showrooms of very few furniture brands, FuoriSalone started growing in the 1980s and had a push in the 1990s.
- 6.
Seehttps://web.comune.milano.it/wps/portal/ist/st/Patto_Milano/scopri_il_patto (10 June 2020).
- 7.
Seehttps://en.unesco.org/creative-cities/milan (10 June 2020).
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The authors acknowledge the support of ASK research center—Università Bocconi.
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Bertoni, A., Dubini, P., Monti, A. (2021). Participatory Event Platforms in the Urban Context: The Importance of Stakeholders’ Meaning of “Participation”. In: Demartini, P., Marchegiani, L., Marchiori, M., Schiuma, G. (eds) Cultural Initiatives for Sustainable Development. Contributions to Management Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65687-4_13
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