Between 2004-­?2013 Bohusläns museum in Uddevalla, Sweden, has collaborated with the travelling community in several project. To capture knowledge and experiences gained from this ten years of activities, Bohusläns museum requested a concerted systematic evaluation.

The evaluation item consisted of three collaborative projects involving Bohusläns Museum and two swedish traveller advocacy groups; Resande romers riksförening and Kulturgruppen för resandefolket. The first project, Snarsmon, involved archeological excavation of a former traveller settlement; in the second project The Travellers´ map, a website was created for publishing inventoried traveller settlements (also in collaboration with two norweigan traveller advocacy groups and Östfoldmuseene in Norway); and in the third project Meet the Travellers! a permanent exhibition on travellers was produced at Bohusläns Museum. The aim with the projects was to increase awareness and knowledge on the traveller´s history, culture and cultural heritage.

Evaluation objective

The evaluation objective was to gather knowledge and experiences, consider benefits and side effects, and study the processes that generated the project results. Focus was on the participatory process with a sample of participants being interviewed. Theory-based process evaluation was used to complete the task, supported by a designed analysis model: ‘the good participatory process’. A discussion was held in a workshop on whether the overall evaluation results are transferable and could inspire other cultural institutions and national minority groups to collaborate, and in what ways.

Ladder of participation

Results

The so called ladder of participation showed that the responses on each individual project were relatively clustered around the same levels and that the participatory processes have developed over time. The tendency of more recent projects to cluster in the upper part of the ladder, versus the Snarsmon project which is located in the middle of the ladder, is a positive development. It is important to consider that participation does not automatically mean influence; however, on this occasion the participants regarded their degree of participation comparatively similarly which supports an actual positive trend. The mechanisms that were reported to have contributed to the increased participation were the readiness of participants to work together on the cultural history of the travelling community, and an increase over time in participants’ trust.

Conclusion and discussion

The key evaluation conclusions concerning project activities and structures for creating a good participatory process between a cultural institution and national minority advocacy groups are presented in the programme theory model.

Model of the key evaluation conclusions

Workshop contribution

Whether the results are specific to the project or the operators, or whether the model can be transferred to other institutions and societies was discussed at a workshop together with external stakeholders. Brief reflections from the workshop:

Early contact is more crucial for participation than who initiates the contact.

It is important to visualise a long-term partnership from the start and not merely a project.

The national minority must be allowed to participate on its own terms, and should not have to conform to a stereotypical image of the group.

Strengthening the organisational resources of national minorities is very important for creating participation on equal terms.

Dialogue is a key tool to a good participatory process. Dialogues must be scheduled and given priority.
The evaluation and the report is made by Josefine Hjort. The evaluationproject was a collaboration between, the travellers’ advocacy group Kulturgruppen för resandefolket, The Living History Forum, Swedish Exhibition Agency and The School of Public Administration at University of Gothenburg and Bohusläns museum.