Civil Society Events: Ambiguities and the Exertion of Cultural Power

Cultural ‘events’ such as festivals and performances are increasingly used by civil society actors for a variety of goals, including the pursuit of social inclusion. Current debates around such events focus on their contradictions and associated failures, not least the illusory nature of their participatory character or their inadequacy in tackling structural dimensions such as inequality or poverty. This paper shifts the emphasis from what civil society events do not do, to what they do, illustrating how this production occurs not in spite of but through the promises that sustain events’ development. The analysis focuses on a case study of a local civic project promoted by ten non-profit groups in Milan from 2006 to 2010. As well as accounting for the growing number of civil society events, this paper highlights how events act as effective weapons of cultural power as they invite participation in pursuit of general goals, such as the promotion of social inclusion, while at the same time allowing events’ organisers to subtly control the specific meanings of the goals they are pursuing.