Project Details
Projekt
The third level: learning and participation programs in music theatre and structural dependency
Applicant
Professor Dr. Christopher Balme
Subject Area
Theatre and Media Studies
Term
since 2017
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 387849349
The object of investigation is the aspect of learning and participation programmes in music theatre as an organisational level and development within the institutional framework of state and municipal theatre, especially against the background of ageing and elitist audience structures. The analytical procedure in a combination of methods for four urban areas of observation - in Berlin, in the north and south of Germany and in the "new" federal states - comprises document-based discourse analyses of music theatre productions, learning and participation programmes and the participating personnel with the help of empirical methods. The theoretical concept is also based on the idea of a "third level", according to which mediation/education can be defined as the bundling (strategically and in the organisation of work) of new concepts of pedagogy and public relations for music theatre. In the social and political legitimation, as well as in the field of work, learning and participation programs are found oscillating between cultural education as a social practice and areas of communication with reference to the cultural industry in terms of marketing. The phenomenon of enculturative breakdown has proven to be variable in the way it is addressed through mediation, depending on local and regional audience composition, cultural-political developments and the internal processes of the theatres.In the second funding period, research will be conducted into the extent to which comparable developments in the mediation of music theatre in other European countries can be identified. With music theatre education in Italy (Lombardy) and the United Kingdom (West Midlands), two countries and regions will be included in the project in which, based on music theatre education, the legitimation, tendencies of (de)institutionalisation and reorganisation of music theatre can be analysed in relation to the specialization of music theatre. For all examples, questions of legitimation, governance and work processes with music theatre education in the centre of the organisation will be examined using discourse-analysis and with the help of qualitative surveys. The changes caused by the Corona crisis will also be examined.
DFG Programme
Research Units
