Activity 1.1.1.2 “Post-doctoral Research Aid” of the Specific Objective 1.1.1 “To increase the research and innovative capacity of scientific institutions of Latvia and the ability to attract external financing, investing in human resources and infrastructure” of the Operational Programme “Growth and Employment”
Project name: Fundamental research “Culture and the arts as a source of social resilience in societal crises: The case of cultural industries in Latvia”
Project implementer: Liene Ozoliņa
Contract No.: 1.1.1.2/VIAA/4/20/605
Project implementation period: 01.01.2021 – 20.04.2023.
Project funding: EUR 111 504,90, including:
Project aim:
This research project aims to examine the ways in which culture and the arts serve as a source of social resilience in societal crises. A multi-sited ethnography will be conducted to study what new forms of cultural activities, products, and relations with the audiences are emerging in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and what forms of social connectedness, solidarity, and well-being they foster. The methods used will include participant observation, interviews, document analysis, and analysis of cultural products and artefacts. The findings will make a contribution, firstly, to sociological theory development on the social impact of culture and the arts and on social resilience in neoliberal societies, and, secondly, to evidence-based policy making, aiding utilisation of the potential of the cultural industries for economic and social development.
The following activities took place during the 8th quarter of the postdoctoral project:
In June 16-18, Liene Ozoliņa took part in an international conference "Old Discipline, New Trajectories: Theories, Methods and Practices in Anthropology", organized by the Society for Anthropological Sciences and the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Vilnius, Lithuania. She participated in the panel "Anthropological exploration of art and performative practices" and presented a paper "Art and activism for beginners: A case study of socially engaged art in post-Soviet neoliberalism", where she reflected on the empirical and conceptual findings from the first ethnographic case study of my postdoctoral project. With this activity, the Work Package 2 was concluded.
One of the main activities during the last quarter of the project was working on a publication together with professor Anda Laķe. The publication, titled “Cultural and arts consumption as a source of social solidarity: The case of the Latvian Centenary programme” was submitted for publication to the International Journal of Arts Management. The task was to develop the conceptual framework, produce a literature review and write the conclusions for the article, drawing on the theoretical research Liene Ozoliņa had conducted on the social impact of the arts as part of the postdoctoral project.
Other project activities during the last quarter included both scholarly and public discussions in relation to societal resilience and the social impact of the arts.
The Researcher now continuing fieldwork on two more case studies in the area of activist art in Latvia, participating in the planning of two projects to take place in July 2022.
During the 5th quarter of the postdoctoral project, the Researcher concluded the activities of the Work Package Nr.2. As part of this Work Package, the Researcher conducted ethnographic fieldwork that consisted of participant observations of an activist art mentoring programme as well as interviews with the programme participants. Drawing on the data, the Researcher prepared a paper titled “Taking Concepts Home”. The paper uses post-colonial theory to analyse how concepts are always rooted in particular contexts, rather than being universal. In this paper, the Researcher works with the ethnographic data to explore the “social life” of concepts such as social justice and solidarity, i.e. their specific understandings and manifestations in Latvia. During the 5th quarter, the Researcher also attended an online training on NVivo qualitative data analysis software, led by experts from the University of Surrey and QDA Services (UK).
Over the course of the fourth quarter of the postdoctoral research project, the Researcher continued her ethnographic fieldwork, conducting both participant observations and in-depth interviews. The fieldwork data are currently being processed to prepare the first publication of this project. In November 9-10th, the Researcher took part in an online training course organised by the University of Southampton, UK. The training was led by a well-known expert and author in the area of qualitative research methods, Helen Kara. The participants discussed the newest trends in research design and ethics, as well as learned about creative research approaches such as arts-based research, embodied research and multi-modal studies. Furthermore, the Researcher continued to share insights from her research publicly, speaking in October to high-school students from all across Latvia as part of an online series organised by the Latvian Ministry of Education and Science.
The first work package of the postdoctoral project “Culture and the arts as a source of social resilience in societal crises” has now been concluded. Firstly, the Researcher studied the most recent scientific literature on arts-based research, art and political activism, and social resilience. Secondly, the plan for the first ethnographic field work was produced and field research began, focusing on art as a form of political activism in Latvia. The Researcher is currently working on the first academic publication on this topic. At the end of the first work package, the project advisory board meeting was held where the Researcher discussed the conceptual framework of the project and the progress so far with colleagues from the LAC Research Centre.
In the third quarter of the project, the Researcher took part in three conferences (the Memory Studies Association’s conference, the European Sociological Association Conference, and in the conference “Emptiness: Ways of Seeing” at the Riga Stradiņš University) and discussed her research also at a number of other public and academic events.
In the second quarter of the research project “Culture and the arts as a source of social resilience in societal crises”, Liene continued developing the conceptual framework for the study and started ethnographic fieldwork for the first case study. The focus of the investigation in this stage has been specifically on the connections between art and politics and the conceptual resources and the apposite methodological approaches to explore these. On May 28th, Liene spoke at an international symposium “Communist Hauntings”, hosted by the Birkbeck College, University of London. The event brought together social and cultural theorists and artists to reflect on the ways in which artistic practices and artefacts can serve to study post-communist social reality. In a paper entitled “Taking Concepts Home”, Liene explored the possibilities and the limits of the conceptual resources provided by Western social theory to understand East European past and present. The papers presented at the conference are planned to be published in an edited volume. Liene will contribute both as an editor and an author.
In the second quarter of the project, a number of public engagement and training activities took place. Liene took part in a discussion organized by the IR Domuzīme magazine on the causes and consequences of the gap between the state and society in Latvia. The discussion was published in the May issue of IR Domuzīme magazine as well as on the magazine’s online platform. On June 3rd, Liene gave a lecture on ethnographic methodology at the Latvian Academy of Culture, attended by undergraduate and graduate students. Liene also attended a number of seminars and training events (all online due to the ongoing restrictions), including a workshop on Interdisciplinary Public Engagement on April 14th, organized by the British National Co-Ordinating Centre for Public Engagement, a seminar on Mnemonic Solidarity, organized by the Memory Studies Association on April 23rd, and a British Council Estonia seminar on Arts for Social Inclusion on June 8th. Liene also benefited from two workshops organized by VIAA - on scientific publishing and bibliometrics (May 6th) and on transferable skills for researchers (May 13th).
The core tasks of the first three months of the project were to study relevant scientific literature and to start elaborating the research design. Researcher read studies and recent publications on the social impact of art, the relationship between the arts and politics, as well as social resilience. The literature review included the following publications:
In March, Researcher attended training on online research methods as well as on the role of the arts in narrating collective memory and identity (both organized by the School of Advanced Study, University of London). Networking activities included online seminars with colleagues from Birkbeck College (University of London) and University of Tallinn in order to exchange knowledge on arts-based research methods.