MUSEUMS AND POLITICS:
In, Of, About
Clive Gray
Centre for Cultural Policy Studies
University of Warwick
C.J.Gray@Warwick.ac.uk
POLITICS
• Politics is concerned with the inter-action of:
1. Power - positive/negative: getting things done; stopping
things happening; managing the agenda
2. Ideology - patterns of values, norms and beliefs that establish
the context within which power is exercised
3. Legitimacy - the established acceptance that power has been
exercised appropriately, and that the outcomes of this
exercise are the ‘right’ ones given the rules of the game
4. Rationality – the underlying logical framework which justifies
the legitimacy of the system: legal, social, economic,
behavioural, ritual, instrumental, political, museal
HOW DOES POLITICS WORK?
• Well…
• It depends. And it depends upon:
1. The Actors who are taking part: core; penumbral; peripheral;
policy-relevant; disengaged/excluded/potential
2. The Subject of engagement: issues of entry fees are not
subject to the same politics as are issues of
restitution/reclamation/repatriation
3. The Degree of societal interest: who cares?
4. The Arena in which it occurs: ‘the museum’; local; regional;
national; international
• Now let me make some gross generalisations
POLITICS ‘IN’, ‘OF’, ‘ABOUT’
• Something of ‘a series of nested games’
• Politics ‘in’ museums: how are things done? - undertaken
primarily by those who directly run museums and provide
museum services
• Politics ‘of’ museums: what things are done? - undertaken by
those inside and outside the museum whose decisions affect
the context for what takes place ‘in’ museums
• Politics ‘about’ museums: why are things being done? undertaken by those inside and outside the museum whose
decisions set the contexts for the politics ‘of’ museums
POLITICS ‘IN’: I
1. Actors: ‘core’ and ‘penumbral’ - professionals; managers;
ancillary staff; volunteers
2. Subject: ‘the collection’ - exhibition and display;
engagement; functional provision (education; conservation;
curation; catering - particularly of cakes; security; etc)
3. Degree of interest: ‘local’; visitors; ‘community’ (however
defined - for New Walk it is not the same as for the British
Museum): often high for specific cases but generally low
4. Arena: the museum
POLITICS ‘IN’: II
1. Power - primarily ‘positive’: making explicit choices
2. Ideology - primarily professional based on functional
concerns
3. Legitimacy - primarily deriving from professional expertise;
secondarily deriving from bureaucratic rules, norms and
legal-rational values
4. Rationality – primarily museal; secondarily behavioural,
instrumental and social
POLITICS ‘OF’: I
1. Actors: ‘core’, ‘penumbral’, ‘peripheral’, ‘policy-relevant’
2. Subject: accountability; funding between functions;
visitors/engagement; ‘the collection’ (in terms of, for
example, accessioning/deaccessioning)
3. Degree of interest: context dependent - largely not
particularly high except amongst those with a central interest
in the subject as employees, visitors and potential visitors, or
as funders and general managers
4. Arena: ‘the museum’ and sectoral, local, regional, national
POLITICS ‘OF’: II
• Power: positive and negative: making decisions/policies;
managing the agenda to control access to the system
• Ideology: combination of professional (about management)
and (usually) party political (about choices) values and beliefs
• Legitimacy: primarily procedural rules; secondarily legal
norms and political system values
• Rationality: subject dependent - political (eg accountability);
social (eg visitors/engagement); economic (eg funding
choices); instrumental (eg. accessioning/deaccessioning)
POLITICS ‘ABOUT’: I
• Actors: primarily ‘core’; secondarily ‘policy-relevant’ and
‘peripheral’
• Subject: definitional; rules of engagement and ‘best practice’;
national status and centrality (‘bragging rights’)
• Degree of interest: self-contained and self-referential;
primarily ‘core’ professional; secondarily national
governmental
• Arena: primarily international (eg ICOM, UNESCO);
secondarily national (eg professional associations)
POLITICS ‘ABOUT’: II
• Power: largely negative - controlling access to the system;
controlling core ideological and professional positions that
exclude non-believers
• Ideology: primarily professional
• Legitimacy: primarily developed from professional authority
and rules; secondarily from political norms and values
• Rationality: primarily museal and ritual; secondarily political
and social