International networks and arts policy research

There is a growth of networks in the cultural policy arena. Many of these networks have been formed to share information and to engage in comparative documentation and research. The International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies (IFACCA) is one such network, established with aims of consolidating the collective knowledge of arts councils and culture agencies, adding value to that knowledge, and improving the management and sharing of information on arts and cultural policy.

Networks such as IFACCA impact on the research agenda in two main ways: directly, by undertaking, commissioning or collaborating on research projects, and indirectly, by highlighting the perceived information needs of their constituents or members. IFACCA’s main research programme, D’Art, is used as a case study to evaluate the direct impacts of the network, and this forms the basis for a discussion of the influence of such networks on the global arts policy research agenda.

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International networks and arts policy research>
International Journal of Cultural Policy 11(2) 129-143 (2005)

Keywords: arts policy research; cultural policy research; international networks

This paper appeared in the International Journal of Cultural Policy, volume 11 number 2, 2005. It was based on the paper I presented at the Third International Conference on Cultural Policy Research, held in Montréal, Canada, in 2004.

The paper aims to follow up on Mark Schuster’s excellent survey of the global cultural policy research infrastructure (Informing Cultural Policy: The Research and Information Infrastructure),  by looking further at the role and utility of international network involvement in research. It may for some seem a little too much an advertisement for IFACCA. If so, I still hope that the first six pages of the paper may be useful or thought-provoking!

Once again, many thanks to Oliver Bennett and the journal’s publishers for letting me reproduce the paper.

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