Balancing Cooperation and Resources: A Case Study of Transnational Initiatives in the Cultural Sector

Abstract: This thesis presents a case study of a Swedish museum’s membership in a European network. Drawing on field material gathered through ethnographic methods, such as interviewing, participant observation and autoethnography, the thesis takes two theoretical perspectives: First, it conceptualizes the network membership as a form of cooperation, following Richard Sennett’s theory on the subject, and secondly discusses it in cultural economic terms, using Paul du Gay and Michael Pryke’s framework. The thesis thus aims to illustrate what opportunities and challenges transnational initiatives like the network membership hold in the cultural sector. Furthermore, by combining the two theoretical approaches, it aims to test and apply Sennett’s theory to a concrete case. The analysis shows that the network resembled a vital opportunity for cultural institutions such as the museum to encounter challenging and enriching exchanges, effectively practicing cooperation. The case study reaffirms the crucial role rituals play in the process of bridging differences, but also reveals them as representing obstacles for participation as experienced by the museum. In this respect, it is an entanglement of economic pressures and individual practices of prioritization, comparison, and motifs of efficiency on both sides that impeded a more successful membership. The thesis thus demonstrates that cooperation is not only a skill that needs to be actively embraced and practiced but is inseparably tied to economic conditions and considerations: Cooperation was ultimately economized. The findings of this study are relevant on a theoretical level, extending the conversation around cooperation by economic parameters. On a practical level, they provide lessons learned and pitfalls for members of such initiatives as well as their coordinators and political or economic decision-makers setting their budgets.