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Real participation or the tyranny of participatory practice? Public art and community involvement in the regeneration of the Raploch, Scotland

This article focuses on the language and practice of ‘participation’, specifically within the practices and processes of public art, when part of broader neighbourhood renewal and regeneration agendas.

In order to investigate as fully as possible the processes involved, the research was planned around a sustained and embedded period of fieldwork, beginning at the inception of the public art scheme. The public art process – from its initiation to completion and for a period afterwards - was shadowed, with participants, artists, community members and stakeholders interviewed at strategic points. Recognising the problems associated with articulation in interviews, and the complex perceptions of power and agency within such situations, creative methodologies were used to draw out more useful data. These included memory mapping and photo elicitation, all of which mark the research and its methodology as distinct. These more experimental methodologies were triangulated with traditional interview and focus groups to ensure rigor. The research process continued for a total of three years, well beyond the completion of the public art scheme and into a period when more visible transformation were taking place as part of regeneration.

Academic writings on public art practices tend to adopt a theoretical rather than an empirical stance or are founded on impact studies conducted shortly after the artwork’s completion. This study is distinctive in its longitudinal nature and also in its consideration of both artistic process and participation within the more wide-ranging changes of regeneration. Its findings relate to the shifting meaning and use of public art, the difficulties of empowerment through participation, and the tensions between the aspirations of policy and its perceived success. It thus situates discussions of public art practices within a broader interdisciplinary field with firmer policy relevance. Its publication in an interdisciplinary journal related to urban studies purposefully maximizes its reach.