The network society in the ‘new normal times’: Crisis digitalization and adaption of cultural organizations in the COVID-19

Abstract

For the recent 3 years, there has been a growing research interest in adaptation to the new normality and crisis digitalization during pandemic. However, there are a little empirical researches in cultural organizations. This study is in line with some sorts of approaches of network society and autonomy. The aim of the research is to study how cultural institutions integrate into the network society through one of the critical elements in creating a network society – digitalization during COVID-19 pandemic. The study was conducted using a mixed methodology in 2021 in St. Petersburg. Three blocks of empirical data were collected and analyzed based on theaters, museums, libraries, and creative spaces: 67 questionnaires; 12 expert interviews; webometrics of social networks of 108 organizations. The key difficulties were the weakness of the technical base and the lack of competencies and specialists to produce content and attract an audience online. The key findings are three strategies of adaptation to the conditions of the new normality: deepening digitalization; hybrid and strategy of autonomy from digitalization. The strategy of deepening digitalization is typical mainly for libraries that are active online even before the pandemic. They found themselves in the most advantageous position by building and expanding the previously developed digital activity. The hybrid strategy was mainly characteristic of museums, which intensified the digitization of collections and introduced new formats, including broadcasts from previously closed repositories. The strategy of autonomy from digitalization is more inherent in theaters, for which the transition to online turned out to be the most difficult and in many cases impossible. Crisis digitalization has exposed the structural difficulties associated with (non-)willingness to transform the former autonomy into the new requirements of the network society.