THE STRUCTURE OF CULTURAL
POLICY
Clive Gray
University of Warwick
Structure and Agency
• Marxist claim: Men make history but not in
conditions of their own choosing
• All policy is made by people
• But people working within a range of
structures
• That limit room for manoeuvre, but also
• Provides opportunities for choice
Structure, Agency and Change
• Archer: structure and agency intertwined with
culture
• Structural and cultural conditions have
temporal precedence
• Morphostasis – continuation of old patterns
• Morphogenesis – creation of new patterns
Structures and Policy: I
• Different structures operate at different levels
within the policy system:
• Macro-level – over-arching elements that set
the framework within which policy is made
• Meso-level – contextual factors within which
sectoral policy is made
• Micro-level – specific components that affect
the detail of sectoral policy
Structures and Policy: II
• Macro-level elements
• Ideology – cf. McGuigan on ‘neo-liberal’
ideology
• Rationality – cf. means-end instrumental
(Weber) and ritual (Royseng)
• Legitimacy – cf. legal rationality and questions
of trust
• Power – cf. institutionalisation
Structures and Policy: III
• Meso-level factors controlled by the state:
• Governmental policy instruments –
information/staffing/money/advice
• Governmental policy priorities – is ‘culture’ more
important than health?
• Governmental structural policies – cf. evidence-based
policy/joined-up government
• Governmental macro-policies – cf. social inclusion;
regeneration; ‘big society’
• Organisations- who provides the service?:
central/regional/local/arm’slength/private/voluntary/community
• Power – context-setting
Structures and Policy: IV
• Micro-level components at sectoral level:
• Specific policy content – cf. direct
provision/sponsorship/investment
• People – policy makers and recipients
• Processes – cf. competition; bargaining;
negotiation; blackmail; threats; compromise
• Power - usage
• Resources – distribution, outputs and
outcomes
Agency and Policy
• Do actors have free will?
• Not entirely: cf. structural constraints and
opportunities
• Proactive – setting the policy agenda (ie.
meso/macro levels as opportunities)
• Reactive – responding to other agendas (ie.
meso/micro levels as constraints)