Negotiating Reciprocity

Europe's Independent Performing Arts (IPA) field thrives on transnational collaborations between project-based artistic companies and presenters, yet faces systemic precarity. While Fabian Eder's (2023) large scale quantitative study revealed pan-European isomorphism stabilizing IPA structures, it also highlighted imbalances destabilizing the field. This thesis shifts focus to the micro- level, asking: What form of reciprocity logic is pre-dominantly encoded in written contracts between IPA companies and presenters? (RQ1) and Do these contracts exhibit transnational convergence linked to isomorphic pressures? (RQ2). Through qualitative content analysis of 13 guest performance contracts (2022-2025) from 10 European countries, this study reconceptualizes contracts as dynamic sites of institutional work (Lawrence et al., 2006, 2009). This practice-theoretical lens deciphers how competing logics- transactional (economic equivalence) versus relational (sociocultural embeddedness)-are encoded in clauses and form the processes and practices between parties. A novel Reciprocity Ratio Score (RRS) quantifies the dominance of each logic per contract. Findings reveal institutional duality: Contracts predominantly enforce transactional practices- rigid liability terms, unilateral penalties, and EU compliance clauses-driven by coercive isomorphism (e.g., tax/employment regulations). However, relational outliers emerge: 30% of cases standardize ethical guidelines (e.g., anti-harassment protocols), shared insurance, or proportional cancellation liabilities. These outliers represent intentional efforts to disrupt exploitative norms and sustain mutual trust through sociocultural reciprocity. Transnational convergence is evident in administrative/technical clauses, reflecting mimetic adoption of "best practices." Yet divergence persists: Swiss, and Scandinavian presenters lead in relational innovation (e.g., Hamburg's graduated cancellation fees; Zurich's co-insurance), while the German, French, and Dutch contracts stress compliance. Critically, presenters exercise agency: as first- movers drafting contracts, they balance the ambiguity of reciprocity and negotiate isomorphic pressures, balancing top-down regulations with bottom-up relational repair. The study concludes that contracts are both products and acts of resistance within the IPA's field. While Eder advocates structural governance, this research reclaims stakeholder agency in shaping sustainable reciprocity. Practically, it urges presenters to adopt hybrid contracting and policymakers to incentivize socioethical standards. The RRS framework offers a tool for self-assessment and sectoral reform, but also for further scientific application in research on reciprocity in network structures. (This abstract was generated with GenAI (DeepSeek-R1, 2024), minor adoptions were made by the author.)