Katarzyna Plebańczyk Civil society, participation, and urban games – comments on the research in the context of culture management. The ideas of social participation and participatory management have become very popular in recent times. They are applied to every aspect of life - they are present in numerous documents, they set out trends in policy and management at the macro level and also in small institutions or organisations. On the other hand, they can be related to the concept of civil society, as these trends often go hand in hand, even though they tend to be analysed from different points of view. Civil society is typically considered from the perspective of the development of the society’s awareness in the fight for its rights and is associated with the existence of civic organisations, which themselves are active and influence the advancement of democracy. Such organisations deal with the problems of everyday life and make efforts to pressurise the government into addressing them. They include both formal and informal organisations which pursue an active dialogue and stand between citizens and the government. The ideas of participatory management generally emphasise the elements which are directly related to management, the employer-employee relationship, the possibility to allow employees to participate in the process of management, and the direct introduction of employees to the arcana of company management (the micro level). During recent years, however, this concept has been extended and used on a macro scale, approaching the meaning which is close to social participation, but still oscillating around the area of management. There is still a need to further develop these ideas to avoid conventional thinking. Later in the article, the above topics will be elaborated on and then referred to the research supporting culture management, particularly to using urban games. The very concept of an urban game is regarded here as the mere starting point of a discussion, as it is more about the use of its distinctive features, main objectives, and ways of implementation – an urban game could be just as well played out outside urban environments (or metropolitan areas as stated in its main premise) and take the form of a rural or even field game. The choice of activity which is tentatively discussed here is based on the same premises as the previously mentioned ideas. First of all, it involves a high degree of human involvement (participation), both direct and indirect. The planned event entails the participation of those who are actors and those who are spectators. In addition, an entire performance takes place with the use of virtual space and broadly defined social media, activating the community in a more indirect manner, which is not to say that this community is any less involved. It seems that such a large and committed audience should not be underestimated, and researching all its aspects is quite an unorthodox undertaking. This idea became the basis for the research project which aroused the interest of an international circle of collaborators1. This fact alone shows that today there is a conducive environment for the topic as well as the main concepts described above. Civil society 1
An international consortium, in which I participate, submitted a joint application for receiving a grant for the project. The application reached the final stage of the competition. Other national and foreign partners have also expressed their interest, which proves that the issues described in the following article and the adopted methodology have a broad response in the milieu of practitioners and theorists.