Performing equality through dramatizing daily practices behind and in front of the stage: a research project of equality strategy at Riksteatern
Organizations within the cultural sector carry important responsibility of societal values, norms and ideologies. How they implement equality strategies is meaningful for society as a whole. Taking the interactionist standpoint, I view social actors as both results of the dominant social norms and meaning agents who are capable to make changes to the society. I apply dramaturgical theories, theories of equality, diversity and inclusion, as well as theories of embodiment and performativity in a scrutiny of the current practices of equality strategies; and thereafter I propose a constructive action plans.
The concepts of ‘front’ and ‘back’ is central in this research. The front can be understood as discourses used in communication materials, in public exposures in terms of Riksteatern’s equality efforts; whereas the back refers to how people express their attitudes, carry out behaviors and construct their identities in daily work. I propose a two-fold research. First, to understand the contrast of discourses between the ‘front’ and the ‘back’ and to recognize the strengths and challenges of the existing equality strategies. Second, using Goffman’s (1959) notion, I argue that coherent performances in both the front and back is crucial for successful implementation of equality strategies. They contribute to the construction of an image of an organization, and may generate internalization of (new) values and norms among individuals and lead to social innovative practices.
Final report
Final report Flexit project:
Project title: “Performing equality through dramatizing daily practices behind and in front of the stage: a project on socially innovative practices of equality strategy at Riksteatern”
The purpose of this project
The proposed project does not only aim at bringing gender inequality issues back to the centre of the agenda in the sector of performing arts in Sweden, but it also intends to address intersectional inequalities across race, ethnicity and class. The objective of this research is thus to gain knowledge about how systematic integration of equality can be carried out in cultural institutions. This project also aims to roll out a socially innovative program to strengthen equality and diversity strategies at Riksteatern. With this, the research seeks to generate knowledge about efforts in diversity, social inclusion and equality made by organizations within the non-profitable cultural sector.
The research processes
Based on the abovementioned purpose, I have executed the research following a few steps.
1. Building literature archives
In the first phase, I built an extensive literature archive, including streams of literature addressing topics from art, culture and equality in society, civil organization and equality and diversity, 'critical diversity studies', 'Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) from an organizational perspective'', 'cultural policies (EU and Swedish National Policies)', 'legislative regulation regarding anti-discrimination at workplaces'.
2. To map out strengths and weaknesses in the existing implementation of equality strategies in the organization through ethnographic research
I conducted ethnographic fieldwork at Riksteatern. I participated in weekly meetings at the Strategy Department, which directly reported to the CEO. I attended the organizations’ monthly information meetings (organized for broadcasting to all association entities across the country), and I worked at my office at Riksteatern daily as all employees. In this phase, I identified inherent challenges that maintained as obstacles to realizing the organization's mission of "equality on, behind, and in front of the stage".
3. Writing up and communicating the results.
I summarized the observations, applied different theoretical frames for the analysis, and communicated the results in academic conferences and through collaborative conferences and symposiums involving various actors, such as artistic practitioners, cultural researchers and researchers within other social science disciplines.
The project’s three most important results and contributions to the international research front
The three significant results that are meaningful and contributing to the international research front are:
1. The co-existence of aesthetic ethics and the ethics of fulfilling social and ideological objectives such as equality, diversity and inclusion remained problematic. When the creative artistic process prioritizes artistic freedom or enacts this ethic without definition and critical reflexivity, it leads to the creation of invisible inequality in artistic processes. I published one article in the Journal of Business Ethics addressing this issue in 2021.
2. In an organization where the notion of EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) is central, persons of different ethnic and racial backgrounds increasingly feel that being marginalized as 'different others'. There is a high employee turnover rate among those individuals in the organization. My other publication in the Journal of Business Ethics in 2022 furthered problematizations of this issue.
3. I identify that the notion of representation is complex and related to equality, diversity and inclusion practices. The use of representation is a common practice both in mainstream diversity management and in performing arts. However, individuals representing others and being seen as the representation undergo a complicated journey struggling between pride and the feeling of tokenism. I submitted an article (under review now) focusing on exploring this complex, emotional journey of individuals.
New research questions generated through the project
There are new research questions that emerged through the research process:
1. Unexpectedly, the Covid-19 pandemic broke out during this project. This has changed the landscape of the research
a. Digitalized performing art broadcasting is a new phenomenon which deserves more research attention.
2. Collaborative research and the researchers’ role
During the Flexit project, a few Flexit researchers formed a collaboration to explore the feminist, collaborative reflexive methodology. This 'sub-project' raised a broader inquiry regarding how action researchers may work together in each individual project for more profound reflections for respective projects.
3. A new focus on critical disability management
At the end of this project, my empirical data has shown a topical subject that deserves more research attention. That is, the equality pursuits expressed by persons of deaf-hood in the Sign Language Theatre. Their pursuits mirrored how the ideal productive body image was constructed by the tenacity of ableism (the hearing people in this case) and how inequality emerged when deaf persons were endorsed with 'different treatments' by hearing people. I am working on new research applications with other scholars aiming to address this issue in the future.
4. To further research grassroots associations and civil organizations’ role in sustaining equality, diversity and inclusion in Sweden.
The project’s international dimensions, such as contacts and material
Based on this project, several international collaborations are being forged.
1. Writing workshop – Gender, Work and Organization.
In 2018, I participated in the workshop organized by the editorial team of Gender, Work and Organization.
2. An International Symposium on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Performing Arts In 2020, with a collaboration between Linköping University, Riksteatern and Riksbankens Jubeliumsfond, I organized an international symposium with actors such as performing arts practitioners, artists, cultural researchers and researchers from other social science disciplines. All researchers and practitioners shared common interests in equality, diversity and inclusion in art and cultural sectors.
3. I initiated several international collaborations in writing projects and publications.
1) Collaborated with a collaboration with a PhD candidate from Alto University. The article has been published in the Journal of Business Ethics.
2) One article has been submitted and is currently under review in collaboration with prof. Tienari from Hanken School of Economics and PhD candidate Alice Wickström from Alto university.
3) I am currently collaborating with Prof. Annette Risberg and Maline Kvitvær (a deaf person) on an article Performing diversity and normalizing disability: an analysis of inclusion and exclusion of the silent others. We presented the article at the EGOS conference in Vienna and at Workshop Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (Copenhagen Business School) in 2022.
Dissemination of the results
1) Riksteatern has formed efforts focusing on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion based on the findings and publications of this Flexit research project. The organization organized several occasions to inform the research process, results and findings between 2019 and 2021. Most of these information meetings are through the organization's national broadcasting network. This means the research is communicated to every association of the organization in Sweden.
2) I communicated the research findings at international conferences such as EGOS (European Group of Organization Studies), GWO (Gender, Work and Organization), SCOS (Standing Conference on Organizational Symbolism), AfterMethod Conference and DEI (Diversity, Equality and Inclusion) Copenhagen Business School Workshop.
3) I communicated the research results through seminars and workshops in other universities, such as Mälardalen University, Copenhagen Business School, and Stockholm Business (Stockholm University), to present my Flexit project.
4) I organized a symposium in 2021 with Riksteatern where art and cultural practitioners, cultural scholars and organizational scholars attended the symposium and discussed the issue of equality, diversity and inclusion together.
Contribution to collaboration between HEIs and organizations outside of academia
This project lays a base for further research on several fronts:
1) This Flexit project renders implications for collaborations between HEIs and art and cultural organizations for working together on how strategies and practices of diversity and equality work may induce desired effects and avoid risks of strengthening marginalizing consequences.
2) I have formed a continuing collaboration between Crea (the theatre of sign language, a subsidiary of Riksteatern) and a few scholars of my network aiming to apply for funding for further research on art, equality and disability management.
The publication list
Peer-reviewed academic original articles
1) Johansson, J.Z., Lindström Sol, S. Artistic Freedom or the Hamper of Equality? Exploring Ethical Dilemmas in the Use of Artistic Freedom in a Cultural Organization in Sweden. Journal of Business Ethics (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-021-04811-6
Published with OA
2) Johansson, J., Wickström, A. Constructing a ‘Different’ Strength: A Feminist Exploration of Vulnerability, Ethical Agency and Care. Journal of Business Ethics (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-022-05121-1
Published with OA. This work is also being included in Alice Wickström's upcoming doctorial thesis.
Project title: “Performing equality through dramatizing daily practices behind and in front of the stage: a project on socially innovative practices of equality strategy at Riksteatern”
The purpose of this project
The proposed project does not only aim at bringing gender inequality issues back to the centre of the agenda in the sector of performing arts in Sweden, but it also intends to address intersectional inequalities across race, ethnicity and class. The objective of this research is thus to gain knowledge about how systematic integration of equality can be carried out in cultural institutions. This project also aims to roll out a socially innovative program to strengthen equality and diversity strategies at Riksteatern. With this, the research seeks to generate knowledge about efforts in diversity, social inclusion and equality made by organizations within the non-profitable cultural sector.
The research processes
Based on the abovementioned purpose, I have executed the research following a few steps.
1. Building literature archives
In the first phase, I built an extensive literature archive, including streams of literature addressing topics from art, culture and equality in society, civil organization and equality and diversity, 'critical diversity studies', 'Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) from an organizational perspective'', 'cultural policies (EU and Swedish National Policies)', 'legislative regulation regarding anti-discrimination at workplaces'.
2. To map out strengths and weaknesses in the existing implementation of equality strategies in the organization through ethnographic research
I conducted ethnographic fieldwork at Riksteatern. I participated in weekly meetings at the Strategy Department, which directly reported to the CEO. I attended the organizations’ monthly information meetings (organized for broadcasting to all association entities across the country), and I worked at my office at Riksteatern daily as all employees. In this phase, I identified inherent challenges that maintained as obstacles to realizing the organization's mission of "equality on, behind, and in front of the stage".
3. Writing up and communicating the results.
I summarized the observations, applied different theoretical frames for the analysis, and communicated the results in academic conferences and through collaborative conferences and symposiums involving various actors, such as artistic practitioners, cultural researchers and researchers within other social science disciplines.
The project’s three most important results and contributions to the international research front
The three significant results that are meaningful and contributing to the international research front are:
1. The co-existence of aesthetic ethics and the ethics of fulfilling social and ideological objectives such as equality, diversity and inclusion remained problematic. When the creative artistic process prioritizes artistic freedom or enacts this ethic without definition and critical reflexivity, it leads to the creation of invisible inequality in artistic processes. I published one article in the Journal of Business Ethics addressing this issue in 2021.
2. In an organization where the notion of EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) is central, persons of different ethnic and racial backgrounds increasingly feel that being marginalized as 'different others'. There is a high employee turnover rate among those individuals in the organization. My other publication in the Journal of Business Ethics in 2022 furthered problematizations of this issue.
3. I identify that the notion of representation is complex and related to equality, diversity and inclusion practices. The use of representation is a common practice both in mainstream diversity management and in performing arts. However, individuals representing others and being seen as the representation undergo a complicated journey struggling between pride and the feeling of tokenism. I submitted an article (under review now) focusing on exploring this complex, emotional journey of individuals.
New research questions generated through the project
There are new research questions that emerged through the research process:
1. Unexpectedly, the Covid-19 pandemic broke out during this project. This has changed the landscape of the research
a. Digitalized performing art broadcasting is a new phenomenon which deserves more research attention.
2. Collaborative research and the researchers’ role
During the Flexit project, a few Flexit researchers formed a collaboration to explore the feminist, collaborative reflexive methodology. This 'sub-project' raised a broader inquiry regarding how action researchers may work together in each individual project for more profound reflections for respective projects.
3. A new focus on critical disability management
At the end of this project, my empirical data has shown a topical subject that deserves more research attention. That is, the equality pursuits expressed by persons of deaf-hood in the Sign Language Theatre. Their pursuits mirrored how the ideal productive body image was constructed by the tenacity of ableism (the hearing people in this case) and how inequality emerged when deaf persons were endorsed with 'different treatments' by hearing people. I am working on new research applications with other scholars aiming to address this issue in the future.
4. To further research grassroots associations and civil organizations’ role in sustaining equality, diversity and inclusion in Sweden.
The project’s international dimensions, such as contacts and material
Based on this project, several international collaborations are being forged.
1. Writing workshop – Gender, Work and Organization.
In 2018, I participated in the workshop organized by the editorial team of Gender, Work and Organization.
2. An International Symposium on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Performing Arts In 2020, with a collaboration between Linköping University, Riksteatern and Riksbankens Jubeliumsfond, I organized an international symposium with actors such as performing arts practitioners, artists, cultural researchers and researchers from other social science disciplines. All researchers and practitioners shared common interests in equality, diversity and inclusion in art and cultural sectors.
3. I initiated several international collaborations in writing projects and publications.
1) Collaborated with a collaboration with a PhD candidate from Alto University. The article has been published in the Journal of Business Ethics.
2) One article has been submitted and is currently under review in collaboration with prof. Tienari from Hanken School of Economics and PhD candidate Alice Wickström from Alto university.
3) I am currently collaborating with Prof. Annette Risberg and Maline Kvitvær (a deaf person) on an article Performing diversity and normalizing disability: an analysis of inclusion and exclusion of the silent others. We presented the article at the EGOS conference in Vienna and at Workshop Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (Copenhagen Business School) in 2022.
Dissemination of the results
1) Riksteatern has formed efforts focusing on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion based on the findings and publications of this Flexit research project. The organization organized several occasions to inform the research process, results and findings between 2019 and 2021. Most of these information meetings are through the organization's national broadcasting network. This means the research is communicated to every association of the organization in Sweden.
2) I communicated the research findings at international conferences such as EGOS (European Group of Organization Studies), GWO (Gender, Work and Organization), SCOS (Standing Conference on Organizational Symbolism), AfterMethod Conference and DEI (Diversity, Equality and Inclusion) Copenhagen Business School Workshop.
3) I communicated the research results through seminars and workshops in other universities, such as Mälardalen University, Copenhagen Business School, and Stockholm Business (Stockholm University), to present my Flexit project.
4) I organized a symposium in 2021 with Riksteatern where art and cultural practitioners, cultural scholars and organizational scholars attended the symposium and discussed the issue of equality, diversity and inclusion together.
Contribution to collaboration between HEIs and organizations outside of academia
This project lays a base for further research on several fronts:
1) This Flexit project renders implications for collaborations between HEIs and art and cultural organizations for working together on how strategies and practices of diversity and equality work may induce desired effects and avoid risks of strengthening marginalizing consequences.
2) I have formed a continuing collaboration between Crea (the theatre of sign language, a subsidiary of Riksteatern) and a few scholars of my network aiming to apply for funding for further research on art, equality and disability management.
The publication list
Peer-reviewed academic original articles
1) Johansson, J.Z., Lindström Sol, S. Artistic Freedom or the Hamper of Equality? Exploring Ethical Dilemmas in the Use of Artistic Freedom in a Cultural Organization in Sweden. Journal of Business Ethics (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-021-04811-6
Published with OA
2) Johansson, J., Wickström, A. Constructing a ‘Different’ Strength: A Feminist Exploration of Vulnerability, Ethical Agency and Care. Journal of Business Ethics (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-022-05121-1
Published with OA. This work is also being included in Alice Wickström's upcoming doctorial thesis.