This article provides arguments why the category of participation should be reconsidered today. The conceptualisation of participation in culture in the area of different cultural turns has led to the development of various strategies for activating a culture participant. The consequences of transforming the assumed passive attitude into active might be regarded, after Markus Miessen, as the nightmare of participation. I consider whether Jacques Rancière’s proposal of “the emancipated spectator” shall be treated as an attempt to get out of this nightmare.
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