“No Contact without Resistance”: Why Cultural Policy Has Such a Hard Time with Navigation

Abstract

The funded cultural sector, when viewed as a whole, is an extreme form of hybrid and asymmetric operation, with many decentralized decision-making lines, interests, silos and blockades. We want to demonstrate this using the example of the German cultural sector. And we want to show where hardenings and drift may arise in such a business, which cause an overarching purpose to be lost and which make even a departure, let alone travelling, very difficult. Our aim is not to write another technical article on culture. Rather, it is about a concise, stark example of conflicting organizations. What the example of culture can teach us about the problems of managing complex operations, and how the Three-Pillar Model can help us to understand and navigate operations even under demanding conditions so that Travelling becomes possible and effective, should be transferable to other organizations—or so we hope.