Culture, Economy and Politics: The Case of New Labour

246 Pages·2015·2.786 MB·English

by  David Hesmondhalgh, Kate Oakley, David Lee, Melissa Nisbett (auth.)

Culture, Economy and Politics
NewDirectionsinCulturalPolicyResearch
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DavidHesmondhalgh,KateOakley,DavidLeeandMelissaNisbett
CULTURE,ECONOMYANDPOLITICS
TheCaseofNewLabour
LachlanMacDowall,MarnieBadham,EmmaBlomkampandKimDunphy
MAKINGCULTURECOUNT
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Culture, Economy and
Politics
The Case of New Labour
David Hesmondhalgh
UniversityofLeeds,UK
Kate Oakley
UniversityofLeeds,UK
David Lee
UniversityofLeeds,UK
Melissa Nisbett
King’sCollegeLondon,UK
©DavidHesmondhalgh,KateOakley,DavidLeeandMelissa
Nisbett2015
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Contents
ListofFigures,TablesandBoxes viii
Acknowledgements ix
1 Culture,PoliticsandEquality:TheChallengeforSocial
Democracy 1
1.1 Whatwearetryingtodointhisbook 1
1.2 Culturalpolicyasadistinctformofpublicpolicy 5
1.3 Politics,poweranddemocracy 12
1.4 SocialdemocraticpoliticsandtheBritishLabourParty 15
1.5 Socialdemocraticculturalpolicy 18
1.6 NewLabourandthe‘ThirdWay’:Economics,equality
andgovernance 23
1.7 AssessmentsofNewLabour,cultureandthearts 28
1.8 Outlineofthebookandresearchquestions 31
2 NewLabour,CultureandCreativity 36
2.1 NewLabour’sculturalpoliciesintroduced:Blair’s
retrospect 36
2.2 Culturalpolicy:Thekeypolicygroupsandtheir
interests 44
2.3 NewLabour’sculturalpolicies:Formation,early
characterandthecreativeindustriesconcept 49
2.4 IntellectualrootsofNewLabour’sculturalpolicies 52
2.5 Creativity 55
2.6 NewLabour’searlydays:Creativeindustriesmapping
andnotmuchelse? 58
2.7 Fouraims:Access,excellence,educationandcreative
industries 65
2.8 Earlycriticisms,asurgeinfunding,andstrings
attached 66
3 TheArts:Access,ExcellenceandInstrumentalism 70
3.1 Agoldenageforthearts? 70
3.2 Fundingandthelottery 71
3.3 Flagshipprojectsandotherinitiatives 75
v
vi Contents
3.4 Sponsorshipandphilanthropy 81
3.5 Anaccesssuccess?Freeadmissiontomuseumsand
galleries 85
3.6 Targets,auditandtheNewPublicManagement 90
3.7 Theartsbacklash,culturalvalueandthe
‘instrumentalism’debate 93
3.8 Thereturntoexcellence 97
3.9 AssessingNewLabour’sartspolicies 100
4 WhatWasCreativeIndustriesPolicy?Film,Copyright
andtheShifttoCreativeEconomy 102
4.1 Creativeindustries:Morethanapolicyvacuum? 102
4.2 NewLabour’sfilmpolicy 104
4.3 ‘Creativeeconomy’and‘CreativeBritain’(revisited) 108
4.4 Copyrightpolicyanddebates 113
5 CulturalPolicyandtheRegions 123
5.1 Acaseofpolicyattachment 123
5.2 Twocontexts:Regionalartsandculturalindustries
regeneration 124
5.3 NewLabour’sThirdWayregionalism:TheRegional
DevelopmentAgenciestakeupthecreativeindustries
idea 126
5.4 Theregionsandcreativeindustries:Earlyautonomy
andachievements 128
5.5 Thelimitationsofclustering 131
5.6 OtherproblemsinNewLabour’sregionalcreative
industriespolicy 133
5.7 Theartsandregenerationintheregions 138
5.8 NewLabour’sregionalculturalpoliciesassessed 140
6 PolicyInnovation:NestaandCreativePartnerships 143
6.1 ‘Projectsforchange’ 143
6.2 Nestaastalentagency 145
6.3 CreativePartnerships 151
6.4 SurvivingbeyondNewLabour 157
7 Heritage 162
7.1 HeritageintheUK 162
7.2 NewLabour’smodernisationofheritage? 164
7.3 Socialinclusionandthewideningofaudiences 171
Contents vii
7.4 Governmentfundingandsupportfortheheritage
sector 174
7.5 AssessingheritageunderNewLabour 180
8 HowDidNewLabourDoonArtsandCulture?And
WhatHappenedNext? 184
8.1 Thebalancesheet 184
8.2 TheCoalition,cutsandcreativeeconomy 191
8.3 Finalwords:Culturalpolicyandsocialjustice 199
Appendix:PeopleInterviewedfortheProject 202
References 208
Index 229
Figures, Tables and Boxes
Figures
2.1 TonyBlairandNoelGallagherat10DowningStreet 41
2.2 Policygroupsandpoliticalactorsinculturalpolicy 46
Tables
2.1 Creativeindustries,asdefinedbyNewLabour 64
3.1 Governmentgrant-in-aidtoArtsCouncilEngland,
1997–2011 72
Boxes
1.1 NewLabour:Thecentralcharactersandachronology 24
1.2 Theresearchquestions 31
2.1 CoolBritannia 40
3.1 Lotteryfundingofartsandculture:Thedownsides 74
3.2 RichMix 77
3.3 Sponsorshipandphilanthropy:What’stheproblem? 82
viii
Acknowledgements
Thisbookisbasedonaresearchproject,CulturalPolicyunderNewLabourr,
fundedbytheUKArtsandHumanitiesResearchCouncilunderitsStan-
dardResearchGrantsScheme,andheldattheUniversityofLeeds.The
grantran fromJanuary2012toDecember 2013.DavidHesmondhalgh
was the principalinvestigator, Kate Oakley and David Lee were the co-
investigators and Melissa Nisbett was the research fellow appointed to
support the project. The research and writing were a team effort, with
each chapter led by a different author (or two). Most of the interviews
wereconductedbyMelissa,butallofuswereinvolvedinsomeofthem,
eitherjointlywithMelissaoralone.OurthankstoAndreasRauhOrtega
forhelpinpreparingthebibliography,andforotherassistance.
We are grateful to all the interviewees, who gave time to share their
memories and perspectives; details can be found in the Appendix.
Wearealsogratefultotheadvisoryboardfortheproject:JoBurns,Tom
Campbell,HilaryCarty,GrahamHitchen,AndyLovatt,RuthMacKenzie
and John Newbigin. Thanks, too, to the researchers who attended our
CulturalPolicyunderNewLaboursymposiuminSeptember2013inLeeds,
for their helpful comments and input, including Ele Belfiore, Franco
Bianchini,HelenGraham,CliveGray,RobertHewison,LeilaJancovich,
Jim McGuigan, Andy Pratt and Sara Selwood. Thanks, too, to Anna
Upchurch for arranging the Cultural Policy seminar series at Leeds,
whichprovidedotheropportunitiestoshareideas,andtoSylviaHarvey
forcommentsonpartsofourdraftmanuscript.
Somematerialinthisbookappearedinpreviouslypublishedjournal
articles:
• Sections of Chapter 3 appeared in Hesmondhalgh, D., Nisbett, M.,
Oakley, K. and Lee, D. (2015) ‘Were New Labour’s Cultural Policies
Neo-Liberal?’ International Journal of Cultural Policy, 21(1), 97–114
(publishedonlineJanuary2014),buthavebeensubstantiallyrevised.
• SectionsofChapter5appearedinLee,D.,Hesmondhalgh,D.,Oakley,
K.andNisbett,M.‘RegionalCreativeIndustriesPolicy-Makingunder
NewLabour’,CulturalTrends,23(4),217–231(publishedonlineJune
2014),buthavebeensubstantiallyrevised.
• Some of Chapter 6 appeared in Oakley, K., Hesmondhalgh, D., Lee,
D. and Nisbett, M. (2014) ‘The National Trust for Talent? NESTA
ix