Scratching the surface of urban change: Art collectives as public entrepreneurs
研究威尼斯艺术团体如何以公共企业家身份，通过艺术项目应对旅游剥削带来的社会挑战，但发现其政策影响力有限，仅触及制度变迁的表层。
This article examines art collectives in Venice that use their artistic and cultural projects to act as public entrepreneurs seeking to improve urban welfare and elicit social change for reasons of societal betterment. These ventures are developed against a backdrop of ongoing socio-economic challenges arising from exploitative tourism in the city. Interviews with some art collective members revealed that: (1) their local rootedness is shaped by issues of gentrification and a search for a city that benefits all; (2) their core values are translated into artistic propositions addressing local demands and institutional voids and (3) their private goals have a public-service background. Our study unveils a unique type of entrepreneur that mediates local demands but has no significant impact at the policy level, thus only scratching the surface of institutional change. This insight contributes to our understanding of artists as public entrepreneurs who, despite their use of activist language channelling public demands, are constrained by the very institutional voids they seek to close.