Independent Performing Arts in Europe: Institutional Consolidation and Precariousness of an Emerging Field

The independent performing arts are establishing themselves as an autonomous organizational field operating across Europe. The core interest in this regard is not in artistic form or aesthetics, but in organizational features that define the field institutionally throughout Northern, Eastern, Southern and Western Europe. This structural account is complimented by an analysis of the social situation within the field, especially in light of the new challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic. Next, the actions taken by advocacy groups to improve the precarious status of the arts and their successes in governance are analyzed in terms of international coalition patterns, the development of mutual awareness and isomorphic alignment in the structuring of the field beyond nation-state borders. 1,031 survey responses from cultural professionals as well as expert interviews with the management staff of independent performing arts associations from twelve European countries are the basis for the research. Neither a scholarly account that consolidates the independent performing arts as a European institution nor a detailed empirical investigation of its socioeconomic situation has been presented before. Consequently, with the data-based discussion of this publication a gap in knowledge relevant for science and practice is be closed.