POLITICS, POLICIES AND PEOPLE: Structure and Agency in Museums and Galleries

CLIVE GRAY

De Montfort University

cjg@dmu.ac.uk

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 CULTURE

Problems:

Definition

Causality

Measurement

Attribution

Sectoral

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