Report from the research: "The factory of culture – paid and voluntary work at cultural festivals"

Abstract

The research material is based on in-depth, partially structured interviews. However, the scope of topics was very wide and conversations mostly referred to: problems that the employees encountered at work, their motivation, expectations towards current work, as well as their future prospects. Answers that gradually appeared in the interviews have been then confronted with the analysis of data and documents that the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage made available. Budgets of particular festivals and general data on their financial support have also been confronted with the interviews. Such an analysis gave us a stronger, structural base for conclusions made over the interpretation of interviews. One question that surprised us, but also showed us the benefits of the grounded theory, was the fact that data obtained from interviews mirrored the data from the documents. In total there were 48 interviews with the employees, co-workers and volunteers who worked at 12 festivals financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage located in 6 different cities in Poland.