Date post: | 14-Dec-2015 |
Category: |
Documents |
Upload: | damion-hibbs |
View: | 216 times |
Download: | 3 times |
POLITICS, POLICIES AND PEOPLE: Structure and Agency in Museums and Galleries
CLIVE GRAY
De Montfort University
INTRODUCTION
Instrumentality: endogenous and exogenous variables
Both have an effect but…
Which have the greater influence?
What is their precise relationship?
STRUCTURE AND AGENCY
‘Men make history, but not in circumstances of their own choosing’ (Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon’)
Giddens: two sides of the same coin: structuration
Archer: continuously entwined: morphogenesis and morphostasis
New institutionalism (structural)
Social Constructivism (agential)
EXOGENOUS STRUCTURES
1. Circulars 2. Confirmatory/appellate power
3. Adjudication 4. Inspection
5. Default powers 6. Audit
7. Control of officers 8. Local Bills
9. Control of grants 10. Control of borrowing
11. Planning systems 12. General legislation
13. General financial controls 14. Best Value
15. Comprehensive Area Assessments
16. Local Performance Indicators
17. Funding Agreements 18. Public Service Agreements 19. Local Area Agreements
20. Key Lines of Enquiry for Service Inspection
ENDOGENOUS STRUCTURES
1. MLA: Museum Accreditation Scheme
2. MLA: Leading Museums: A Vision and Strategic Action Plan for English Museums
3. Museums Association: Code of Ethics for Museums
(International Council of Museums Code)
(Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art)
‘WHAT ABOUT THE WORKERS?’
Attachment argument: choose to align with other policy areas
Instrumentalisation: contested process – top-down meets bottom-up views
Managing external demands – exogenous and endogenous
MANAGING PRESSURE: Example
Performance Indicators
Used internally (managerially) and
Externally (politically/principal-agent relations)
Deriving from:
(New) public management
Evidence-based policy making
PROBLEMS:
1. Tunnel Vision
2. Suboptimization
3. Myopia
4. Measure fixation
5. Misrepresentation
6. Misinterpretation
7. Gaming
8. Ossification
(Smith, 1995)
CONSEQUENCES
Continuous process of making/remaking the tools of controlContinuous process of actively managing the tools of control by those that they are applied to (‘we are not a government poodle’)An entrenchment of inter-organisational political struggleA potential to emphasise exogenous controls over endogenous onesA potential to concentrate on unintended rather than intended consequences
SOME QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
Locational: are the same pressures present at the
local/regional/national levels?
Behavioural: what are the mechanisms that are used by political actors in managing the process?
Situational: how important is context in affecting what takes place within the system? What is happening in other policy sectors? What is happening elsewhere in government?
Party political: do any of the political parties have any idea at all of what they are demanding?
STRUCTURE/AGENCY REVISITED
Structure by itself is a rough guide to action
Agency turns this into reality
This can lead to reinforcement of the existing system
OR, it can lead to a change in the system
Longitudinal analysis is essential to understand what is taking place
Structure/Agency is not whether one is more important than another, or the relative weightings between them, or, even, which takes precedence
STRUCTURE AND AGENCY CONTINUED
Instead it is how the two mutually interact on a continuous basis
To produce mutable – and, occasionally, stable -forms of action and structure
The inter-dependence of the two can best be seen in an historical perspective
References
Archer, M, Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach (1995, Cambridge University Press)
Gibson, L, ‘In Defence of Instrumentality’, Cultural Trends, Vol. 17, pp. 247-57, 2008
Giddens, A, The Constitution of Society (1984, Polity)
Gray, C, ‘Local Government and the Arts’, Local Government Studies, Vol. 28, pp. 77-90, 2002
Gray, C, ‘Managing Culture: Pitfalls and Prospects’, Public Administration, Vol. 85, pp. 574-85, 2009
Marx, K, ‘The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon’, pp. 143-249 in D. Fernbach (Ed), Surveys From Exile: Political Writings, Volume 2 (1973, Penguin/New Left Review)
Smith, P, ‘On the Unintended Consequences of Publishing Performance Data in the Public Sector’, International Journal of Public Administration, Vol. 18, pp. 277-310, 1995
West, C & C. Smith, ‘”We are not a Government Poodle”: Museums and Social Inclusion Under New Labour’, International Journal of Cultural Policy, Vol. 11, pp. 275-88, 2005
Web-site addresses
MLA: (Accreditation) www.mla.gov.uk/what/raising_standards/accreditation
MLA (Leading Museums) www.mla.gov.uk/what/strategies/~/media/Files/pdf/2009/MLA_Museum_ActionPlan_final
Museums Association (Code of Ethics) www.museumsassociation.org/download?id=15717
Washington Conference www.lootedart.com/MG7QA043892