Reading the Present Through the Past: A Critical Introduction

This introduction contextualises the key themes explored in this edited collection—participation, values and governance—against the backdrop of current academic debates on cultural policy. We flesh out the broader methodological and theoretical standpoints from which the collection originates, expounding the contribution that a historical perspective can offer to understanding contemporary debates on politics and policy. Thus, this collection fulfils an important need for researchers and practitioners in the fields of cultural policy, arts management, heritage, museum, theatre and leisure studies in providing much-needed historical insight that sheds light on contemporary issues of cultural value and governance which are of great topicality. Approaching participation as an historically and spatially situated phenomenon, and articulating the effects of heritage, context and place by historicising and deconstructing present-day understandings of participation and cultural value is central to this endeavour and will open up new avenues of research.