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

CLIVE GRAYDe Montfort University

cjg@dmu.ac.uk

INTRODUCTION

Instrumentality: endogenous and exogenous variablesBoth 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: structurationArcher: continuously entwined: morphogenesis and morphostasisNew institutionalism (structural)Social Constructivism (agential)

EXOGENOUS STRUCTURES

1. Circulars 2. Confirmatory/appellate power3. Adjudication 4. Inspection5. Default powers 6. Audit7. Control of officers 8. Local Bills9. Control of grants 10. Control of borrowing11. Planning systems 12. General legislation13. General financial controls 14. Best Value15. Comprehensive Area Assessments16. Local Performance Indicators 17. Funding Agreements 18. Public Service Agreements

19. Local Area Agreements20. Key Lines of Enquiry for Service Inspection

ENDOGENOUS STRUCTURES

1. MLA: Museum Accreditation Scheme2. MLA: Leading Museums: A Vision and Strategic Action Plan for English Museums3. 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 areasInstrumentalisation: contested process – top-down meets bottom-up viewsManaging external demands – exogenous and endogenous

MANAGING CULTURE

Problems:DefinitionCausalityMeasurementAttributionSectoral

MANAGING PRESSURE: Example

Performance IndicatorsUsed internally (managerially) andExternally (politically/principal-agent relations)Deriving from:(New) public managementEvidence-based policy making

PROBLEMS:

1. Tunnel Vision2. Suboptimization3. Myopia4. Measure fixation5. Misrepresentation6. Misinterpretation7. Gaming8. 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 actionAgency turns this into realityThis can lead to reinforcement of the existing systemOR, it can lead to a change in the systemLongitudinal analysis is essential to understand what is taking placeStructure/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 basisTo produce mutable – and, occasionally, stable -forms of action and structureThe 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, 2008Giddens, A, The Constitution of Society (1984, Polity)Gray, C, ‘Local Government and the Arts’, Local Government Studies, Vol. 28, pp. 77-90, 2002Gray, C, ‘Managing Culture: Pitfalls and Prospects’, Public Administration, Vol. 85, pp. 574-85, 2009Marx, 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, 1995West, 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/accreditationMLA (Leading Museums) www.mla.gov.uk/what/strategies/~/media/Files/pdf/2009/MLA_Museum_ActionPlan_finalMuseums Association (Code of Ethics) www.museumsassociation.org/download?id=15717Washington Conference www.lootedart.com/MG7QA043892