Cultural Policy: Management, Value and Modernity in the Creative Industries

175 Pages·2013·1.718 MB·English

by  Dave O'Brien

CULTURAL POLICY
Contemporary society is complex, governed and administered by a range of
contradictorypolicies,practicesandtechniques.Nowherearethesecontradictions
more keenly felt than in cultural policy. This book uses insights from a range of
disciplines to aid the reader in understanding contemporary cultural policy.
Drawing on a range of case studies, including analysis of the reality of work in
thecreativeindustries,urbanregenerationandcurrentgovernmentculturalpolicy
in the UK, the book discusses the idea of value in the cultural sector, showing
how value plays out in cultural organisations.
Uniquely, the book crosses disciplinary boundaries to present a thorough
introduction to the subject. As a result, it will be of interest to a range of scholars
across arts management, public and non-profit management, cultural studies,
sociology and political science. The book will also be essential reading for those
working in the arts, culture and public policy.
Dave O’Brien is Lecturer in Cultural and Creative Industries at City University,
UK. He specialises in cultural value and urban cultural policy issues and has a
PhD in Sociology from the University of Liverpool, UK. His work on cultural
value includes a recent secondment and report to the UK’s Department for
Culture, Media and Sport, along with several conference papers and forthcoming
research articles.
‘Dave O’Brien’s much-needed textbook succeeds in integrating cutting-edge
sociologicalresearch onsocial changeandinequality withananalysis ofurbanism,
creativity and cultural value. This book is now the state of the art and will be a
crucial resource for all students of cultural policy.’
Mike Savage, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
‘O’Brien’sbook strikes the right balance betweenawell-made introduction to all
basic notions and issues in cultural policy, and a wide array of rich and always
stimulatingcasestudies.Itisatimelybook,whichhelpsrethinkandreinventnew
ways of practising cultural policy in a moment of great challenges for the creative
industries.’
Jan Baetens, University of Leuven, Belgium
‘This is a timely and pertinent text in the arena of cultural policy, addressing all
the main issues in relation to cultural policy and its various manifestations in the
UK. This is a textbook that is long overdue and an essential for undergraduate
and postgraduate students across a range of disciplines, including cultural
management, tourism management/development, museum management and
curatorship, arts management, etc.’
Clare Carruthers, University of Ulster, UK
‘In his broad-ranging and engaging book, Dave O’Brien provides a welcome,
distinctive and enriching political science perspective to key issues and debates in
cultural policy studies. The result is a thought-provoking new contribution to
understandingculturalvalueasoneofthedefiningdebatesoftwenty-firstcentury
British cultural policy.’
Eleonora Belfiore, University of Warwick, UK
‘O’Brien’s urgent, wide-ranging and original synthesis of ideas provides a limpid
and challenging framework for anyone wishing to make sense of contemporary
culturalpolicyanditsimportance.Itwillproveinvaluableforthoseofusteaching
future cultural workers and researchers as well as those in the industries or
involvedintheformulation ofpolicyanditsassessment.Henceforth, when Ihear
the word culture, I’ll reach for O’Brien.’
Paul Long, Birmingham City University, UK
CULTURAL POLICY
Management, value and modernity
in the creative industries
Dave O’Brien
Firstpublished2014
byRoutledge
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O’Brien,Dave.
Culturalpolicy:management,valueandmodernityinthecreative
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pagescm
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1.Culturalindustries–Governmentpolicy.2.Culturalpolicy.I.Title.
HD9999.C947O372013
338.4’70705–dc23 2013012000
ISBN:978-0-415-81759-2(hbk)
ISBN:978-0-415-81760-8(pbk)
ISBN:978-0-203-58395-1(ebk)
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vii
1 Introduction 1
2 Modernity, government and the social life of methods:
defining the context for cultural policy 17
3 Whose culture? Participation and consumption in
contemporary life 50
4 ‘Beats working for a living’: life in the creative economy 70
5 Changing places: the end of the golden age of culture-led
regeneration 90
6 The value of culture: theories of ‘public value’ and
cultural organisations 112
7 Conclusion 131
Bibliography 141
Index 159
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Acknowledgements
This book would not have been possible without the help of several people. In
the first instance my parents and my friends have been a source of tremendous
support, along with my current colleagues at City University London. Stuart
Wilks-Heeg and Steven Miles, my two PhD supervisors at the University of
Liverpool, did much to shape chapters 2 and 5. I'm grateful to Claire Jones and
Victoria Durrer for their encouragement and to Kate Oakley, Andrew Miles and
Will Fitzpatrick for reading sections of the book as it developed. I was ably
assisted by Tom Whittaker, who helped transcribe material from the Con-
temporary UK Cultural Policy course at City University London. Many of the
insights into policy making were gained during my secondment to the EAU at
DCMS during 2010, so the team there at that time can take some credit (if not
responsibility!) for my understanding of the challenges confronting cultural policy
in modernity.
Sections of the book draw on my previously published material, including
excerpts, by permission of the publishers, from:
O'Brien, D. (2010) ‘No cultural policy to speak of: Liverpool 2008’, Journal of Policy
Research inTourism,Leisure andEvents2(2) 113–28
O'Brien, D. (2012) ‘The culture and sport evidence programme: New forms of evidence
andnewquestionsfor culturalpolicy’CulturalTrends 21(4) 275–80
O'Brien, D. and Cox, T. (2012) ‘The “Scouse Wedding” and other myths and legends:
Reflections on the evolution of a “Liverpool model” for culture-led regeneration’
CulturalTrends 21(2) 93–101
O'Brien, D. (2013) ‘Public value: perspectives and prospects from the UK’ in Scott, C.
(ed.)Museums andpublic valueLondon:Ashgatepp.145–59
O'Brien, D. (2013) ‘Shaping cultural policy around practical utopianism’ Journal of Policy
Research inTourism,Leisure andEvents5(1) 105–8
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1
INTRODUCTION
Contemporary society is complex, governed and administered by a range of
contradictorypolicies,practicesandtechniques.Nowherearethesecontradictions
more keenly felt than in cultural policy. This book demonstrates the importance
of cultural policy as both an important part of the modern world and a dis-
tinctive, interdisciplinary, academic field. Cultural policy has often been a
neglected area of study, falling between a range of academic disciplines. In poli-
tical science it is seen as peripheral compared with the study of health, defence or
education. Cultural studies, an area that cultural policy developed from, has tra-
ditionally questioned the extent and importance of engagement with policy.
Sociology, particularly the sociology of culture, offers much to help understand
cultural policy but has, asyet, not been integrated into cultural studies or political
science approaches to the topic.
Cultural Policy: Management, Value and Modernity in the Creative Industries is the
first book to bring these three areas together. The following text synthesises
insights from political science and sociology to illuminate questions that are
important for a cultural studies approach to cultural policy. It argues that cultural
policy is a useful case study for understanding issues of management, value and
modernity by showing how cultural policy is crucial to both economy and
society in modernity.
The starting point for this argument will be a consideration of the meaning of
key terms: culture, value and the creative industries. The introduction will then
turntoexplore thequestionoftheunique orspecialstatusthatmightbeafforded
toculturalpolicyasaresultofitsentanglementwithideasofaestheticsandartistic
critique.Anassociateddiscussion,ofmanagement,isframedbyaspecificfocuson
the relationship between artistic discourses and public policy, closing this intro-
duction ahead of the book’s theoretical and case study chapters.