Read the interview also on ENCATC website: http://www.encatc.org/pages/fi​leadmin/user_upload/Newsletter​s/ENCATC_NEWSLETTER_2011_6_DIG​EST.pdf

Dr. Lidia Varbanova has over 20 years of professional experience as a consultant, researcher and lecturer in more than 50 countries. Her portfolio covers subjects as diverse as strategy, management, entrepreneurship, marketing, fundraising, organisational development and change, online technologies, with a special emphasis on (but not limited to) cultural, entertainment and non-profit sectors.

A professor in prominent universities and training centers in Europe and Canada and an acclaimed conference speaker, she also provides consultancy and research services for government authorities, foundations, businesses, international associations and networks. Lidia has received a number of awards, among them from the Fulbright Program, the Japan Foundation, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NISPAcee, ArtsLink, Webb Memorial Trust Oxford. An internationally acclaimed conference speaker and moderator, she is an active member of several Canadian and international professional associations and networks, former Board member and Vise-President of ENCATC. For over a year now, Lidia moderates the Young Cultural Policy Researchers Forum online (YCPRF). In her free time she plays piano, joins music events and volunteers for social and cultural causes.

1. When was the Young Culural Policy Research Forum first created? And how has it evolved and adapted to change?

The Forum was launched in March 2010 as an initiative of the European Cultural Foundation, LabforCulture, Riksbanken Jubileumsfond and ENCATC, as a part of a larger collaborative project which includes also the Cultural Policy Research Award (CPRA) and the annual Young Cultural Policy Researchers Forum meetings. The main aim of the Forum is to facilitate young cultural policy researchers to meet online, to get to know each other, to collaborate on joined initiatives, and to stay informed. We currently have more than 140 members of the Forum from over 30 countries.

We certainly try to adapt to the users’ needs:  in December 2010 we undertook a targeted survey in order to assess this online space, to find out users’ satisfaction and ways to improve it in the future.  A vast majority of interviewees answered that there was certainly a need for such an online space for young researchers to collaborate and share. Some of the main reasons for researchers to join the Forum were:

• To stay in touch with what is happening in the cultural policy field, to stay informed, to get familiar with the work of people and organizations
• To share research work and get feedback by peer reviewers
• To have discussions on interesting topics with colleagues and experts
• To be part of the European pool of cultural policy researchers

The survey provided useful suggestions on how to move further in terms of content and technical development of the Forum, and we are now in a phase of Forum’s improvement: making it more dynamic, with better interactive options and a changed overall layout to improve usability.

2. What are the key features of the online Forum? What opportunities does it offer for young cultural researchers?

Currently, the online space offers:

• Hundreds of online tools and resources helping research work
• Regular updates on calls for papers, scholarships, fellowships and funding opportunities
• Listing of events in the cultural policy field
• Insightful and analytical blogs
• Toolkits and methods to increase the efficiency in the research process
• Latest news on the Cultural Policy Research Award
• A space to publish research papers, exchange viewpoints, initiate dialogue, and more….

We also distribute a bi-monthly electronic Digest to remind the Forum members of the new postings and updates.

3. How does the Online Forum complement the Young Cultural Policy Researchers Forum (YCPR Forum) which takes place on an annual basis as part of the ENCATC Annual Conference?

We strongly believe in the efficiency in combining online and offline collaboration, especially for the young people who spend a good portion of their life using Internet and collaborative Web 2.0 tool, as well as social networks. Social networking and marketing lead to an ongoing and irreversible power shift to the end users who are active contributors to the online content and they also act as self-promoters. Websites are not anymore only passively providing information – they are active connectors and facilitators, “meeting points”, virtual places to share ideas and gain friends.

In the next few months we will use the YCPR Forum for preparing the “offline” Forum in Helsinki (October 11-12, 2011). We will motivate young researchers to start discussing key issues online before the forum, to share their research papers and findings in advance, so that they could come to Helsinki more informed about each others’ research topics and interests.  We expect an active collaboration for setting up the agenda and the topics for the Forum in Helsinki, so that young researchers would benefit the most as a result of their participation. We believe that such an online collaboration will be an efficient supplement to the meeting in October. So, I invite and encourage young researchers to visit the online Forum: registration is simple and free.

4. Does the new digital era and new technologies represent an obstacle or an opportunity for the cultural research field?

We live in a fascinating era where we experience new forms of collaborative processes, cultural production and dissemination. They provide an immense opportunity for people from different countries and geographic location to be virtually “together” and to share, exchange, learn from each other. Users’ driven online content have changed much the conventional way by which we used to produce, write, share, create, as well as deal with research. These trends open a space for successful Internet driven business models and digital entrepreneurship, which on my opinion are not yet fully explored in the cultural sector in general.

Cultural researchers could also benefit from the new technologies: they could stay connected in a real time (e.g. via instant messaging, discussions online, group calendars, shared online encyclopaedias, etc.); they could use diverse integrated applications (e.g. workflow integration, syndicated content, group emails, etc.). This speeds up the process of creative thinking and sharing on a certain research topic, which eventually improves the quality of the research itself.  I haven’t passed across a research proving how exactly online tools reflect on the quality of a research paper.

My impression is that many cultural researchers, especially established one, are still hesitant to use Web 2.0 tools to support their professional work. This is probably because of the perception that “blogging” and spontaneous comments are not “serious” and look somehow as unfinished thoughts. Cultural researchers are used to publish a final “ready-to-be read” material. There is also a problem with the online copyright and loss of control on the content once when published online. Professionals are scared that their work will be further distributed in the public domain without their permission.  And not the least: many users fear to post personal details on a social networking online platform.

I believe that we do need well designed and targeted training and educational courses and seminars as part of the curricula of arts management programs at all levels to discuss with the young managers and researchers the pros and cons of the “marriage” between the emerging new technologies and the old-fashioned research and publishing processes, which still prevails in many universities worldwide.

5. Given your experience of living in Canada, how would you describe the Research field in North America? Does it differ greatly from Research in Europe?

I can not judge as “North America” is very diverse, as well as “Europe” is and is not possible to generalize and compare – there are many differences between the countries and regions in the way in which cultural policy research is perceived and funded. My impression is that in Canada one of the important research angles is on how arts and culture reflect communities, how they contribute to our daily life, what is the value of the arts for social changes, how creativity could be expanded beyond the professional circles of artists. Making culture and arts accessible to all, as well as caring about young peoples’ involvement in the arts, especially in relation to creativity, entrepreneurship, new media and innovation, is an important aspect of policy and research directions.

An important research topic worldwide is related to the importance of culture as the “fourth pillar of sustainability”, as well as to the way how arts and artists act in response to burning environmental issues and climate change. Last year we completed an international collaborative research on LabforCulture, devoted to artists responses to climate change, which still generates users’ interest.

I observe a strong need to initiate collaborative research projects on international scale between the younger generations.  Emerging researchers need to learn from differences and diversity, to learn better how to deal with comparative analysis and case studies from different countries to produce better project outcomes with both scientific and applied value. Policy-makers, funders and universities should pay much better attention on collaborative research work in the cultural sector, as this collective knowledge from diverse countries and regions is worth considering.

6. What advice would you have for young cultural policy researchers?

Never give up and never take “No” as an answer. Believe in what you do, work hard and stay devoted: only then your professional dream will certainly come true one day. Cultural policy research field is rewarding but not an easy one: it requires a good portion of diplomacy and negotiation skills as it reflect diverse stakeholders because research without policy actions stays only in the libraries without real impact on improving the creative life of cultural professionals and the communities. It also needs patience, as in many cases undertaking practical policy actions as a result of research findings requires time, lobbying and joined advocacy efforts.

I love what I do professionally since many years, and this keeps me quite motivated. I would advise young researchers: be very honest with yourself and stay in the research and academic field only in case you really love it. Otherwise just change the field: professional happiness is number one in life, after health.