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 NaziConfiscated 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 control
Continuous 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
struggle
A potential to emphasise exogenous controls over
endogenous ones
A 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. 24757, 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/accreditat
ion
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=1571
7
Washington Conference
www.lootedart.com/MG7QA043892