Project Details
Projekt
Market as Crisis: The Internationalisation of Independent Theatre in Germany – Funding Economy, Spaces of Co-ooperation, Aesthetics
Subject Area
Theatre and Media Studies
Accounting and Finance
Accounting and Finance
Term
since 2021
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 387849349
Independent theatre in Germany is characterised by internationalisation, reflected in, for example, cross-country co-operations, international festivals, guest performances and artist-in-residence programmes. Internationalisation has also found its way into the criteria for funding decisions. The project builds upon a first project phase in which the link between funding structures, working conditions and artistic aesthetics has been analysed and related to transformational institutional dynamics and crisis discourses. The project focusses on the internationalisation of independent theatre in Germany and investigates paths and consequences of this internationalisation. The analytical perspective is to study internationalisation – and thus the coexistence and diversity of cultural, organisational, institutional and aesthetic practices and traditions – in its local manifestations. The project combines two disciplinary perspectives, work and organisational studies with theatre studies, to research the interactions between funding conditions, forms of work and co-operation as well as artistic formats and aesthetics in the context of internationalisation. Internationalisation is conceptualised as (1) a dynamic process that empirically changes market conditions, work practices and aesthetics of independent theatre groups and (2) as a discoursively produced phenomenon that itself requires legitimisation. These multi-layered connections are examined on the basis of qualitative interviews, (participant) observations and analyses of theatrical performances. By referring to the spatial turn in organisational studies, a focus of analysis are the essential changes to traditional spaces of co-operation and theatrical performance driven by internationalisation and, very recently, by accelerated digitalisation as a consequence of the Corona-crisis. Since independent theatre’s internationalised work practices and forms of production are increasingly adopted by public repertory theatres and since co-operations between independent groups and public theatres proliferate, the project also contributes to our understanding of transformational dynamics in the performing arts in general.
DFG Programme
Research Units
