SUMMARY FOR ARTICLE

Problematising participation is an editorial for a special issue of Cultural Trends, 22, 2, 2,,3. what graeme evans denes as an unhelpful hierarchy of professional arts arts in education and community arts serves to limit the potential of the arts sector and of arts policy at national and local levels to engage with wider audiences. the articles in this special issue of cultural trends attempt to move the debate on by challen- ging the policy discourse around cultural engagement and participation and questioning some of the decisions that may contribute to maintaining the status quo in this policy area. ruth melvilles paper similarly focuses on the qualitative analysis of practice by examining the community cultural champions scheme. she examines the process from the perspective of the cham- pions themselves and considers the impact on the individual champions sense of well-being alongside the relationships between the champion the arts organisation and the community.