Cultural services and social policy: exploring policy makers' perceptions of culture and social inclusion

In post-devolution Scotland, New Labour added to the role of 'culture' by introducing ideas of social inclusion to policies concerning cultural services. Ten years later, with the Scottish National Party (SNP) minority government in the Scottish Parliament, do policy makers think social inclusion still has a role within cultural services? This article shows that policy makers' understandings of 'culture' and social inclusion are vague, general and complex. This has encouraged policy makers to think of cultural services as resources to fulfil wider economic and social objectives. At the same time, cultural services are placed at an individual level, with cultural services seen as 'generators of wellbeing', rather than agents of social change. Social inclusion and cultural meanings are linked to individualistic causes of poverty and related to the SNP's economic focus in Scotland. This complexity impacts on the interpretation and implementation of policy and has resulted in the cultural agenda being seen as less of a priority within the new SNP administration

The ‘Chalkface’ of Cultural Services: Exploring Museum Workers’ Perspectives on Policy

The difficulties faced by services in the cultural sector have been immediate and challenging. Public services that are cultural in nature have faced funding cuts, closures and redundancies. Museum services are low in political importance and unable to provide clear evidence of their policy impact. Despite these challenges, there has been limited evidence about the policy process at ground-level. This thesis builds on theoretical and empirical ideas in social and cultural policy to present museum workers’ perspectives within a cultural theory framework. Following Lipsky’s (1980) work on street-level bureaucrats, this thesis presents an analysis of street-level workers’ roles in delivering social and cultural policy. Museum workers’ perspectives are presented through a series of case studies (drawing on qualitative interviews and observations) from three local-authority museum services in England, Scotland and Wales. The findings showed evidence that top-down cultural and social policies have had an influence on workers actions, but service-level workers’ understandings were central to the policy process. Museum workers actively shaped museum policy through ground-level interactions with visitors and groups. Workers experienced policy in the cultural sector as fragmented, vague and difficult to engage with at the ground-level. Workers mainly viewed policy as meaningless rhetoric. Despite this, those working at ground-level often utilised policy rhetoric effectively to gain funding and manipulate activities towards their own needs and interpretations. Policy evaluation was also fragmented and underdeveloped within the services studied. Workers found themselves under pressure to fulfil policy objectives but were unable to show how they did this. Furthermore, there was a perceived distance from managers and local authority structures. This allowed a space for workers to implement and shape policy towards their own professional and personal ideals. Vague policies and a lack of formal mechanisms for evaluation led to high levels of worker discretion at ground-level. Economic policy expectations were resisted by workers, who tended to have more egalitarian views. Museum workers effectively managed policy expectations through a mixture of discretion and policy manipulation. Delivery at the ground-level was seen as effective – despite, not because of, cultural sector policies

Exploring the gap between museum policy and practice: a comparative analysis of Scottish, English and Welsh local authority museum services

This paper explores the gap between museum policy and practice in the United Kingdom (UK) by offering empirical evidence from a comparative street-level analysis of museum services in Scotland, England and Wales. Exploring devolution in cultural services from the ground-level using Lipsky's (1980) ‘street-level' approach gives new insights to the role of ground-level workers in cultural policy. It shows that museum workers had an awareness of national policies, but implementation was mainly influenced by a mixture of challenges in the everyday delivery of the museum services studied. Museum workers understood policy as something symbolic rather than relating to action, which reinforced policy distance. Workers at the ground-level had more similarities than differences throughout Scotland, England and Wales and the structural challenges within museum services indicated a complex negotiation that increased agency at the ground-level. These findings outline the potential limitations of written national and international policy in the cultural sector as it is the activities, values and behaviours at the front-line of cultural services that ultimately creates policy in the cultural sector. [i] [i] Notes This work was supported by the ESRC PhD Studentship schem

Growing older in Scotland: health, housing and care

This research briefing shows the range of activities and experiences that relate to the standard of living of older people in Scotland.  The data furthers our understanding of housing, health, unpaid care and the inequalities that relate to these as people get older

Analysing the Adjectival Museum: Exploring the bureaucratic nature of museums and the implications for researchers and the research process

The proliferation of titles for types of museum has resulted in an adjectival explosion in recent years (with museums being engaging, relevant, professional, adaptive, community, national, universal, local, independent, people’s, children’s, scientific, natural history, labour, virtual, symbolic, connected, trust and charitable, amongst many other labels). This paper argues that the adoption of an organizational focus on bureaucratic features such as hierarchical authority, centralisation of power, functional specialisation and research processes can show commonalities in the understandings and challenges linked to museum function. The emphasis on museums as a specific institutional and organizational form allows for the identification and explanation of similarities and differences in their operational existence that extends beyond their particular individual natures. This also implies that the bureaucratic nature of museums has implications for researchers as they are organizations that reflect gender and power dynamics on a micro-level within the research process

The Theory and Practice of Welfare Partnerships: The Case of the Cultural Sector

Partnership working in the welfare state has moved from the margins to the mainstream in terms of achieving policy objectives. Drawing on interdisciplinary theoretical and empirical developments in the field, this article presents a framework for analyzing welfare partnerships that give precedence to the issues of trust and interdependence. This article presents findings from a study of local authority museum services in Scotland, England and Wales to test this framework. A series of case studies revealed that partnerships have been driven by a number of factors including policy, power, funding and people. Partnerships could gain services credibility, but trust and interdependence were compromised by conflictual and unequal relationships. Partnerships were often short term, lacked ongoing maintenance plans and limited by their type of funding. The article proposes that further analysis of the level of individual agency at ground level be considered when thinking about partnerships in the cultural sector

The Repoliticization of High-Rise Social Housing in the UK and the Classed Politics of Demolition

This paper explores the politics behind high-rise housing and focuses on Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, as a case study to explore and understand the impact and consequences of sustained disinvestment in social housing. In recent decades there has been much investment on a global scale in high-rise living, while dominant narratives that surround the discussion of social housing in the UK has denigrated high-rise blocks and mobilized negative narratives about the tenants they house. Stigma and polarization often lead to what is seen as the only solution: demolition. However, the process of demolition is highly political, contextualized and highlights the classed nature of urban policy and of housing provision. This directly shapes the increasingly polarized landscapes of inequality which have become so pronounced in UK urban areas. The paper makes reference to the Grenfell Tower tragedy in London in 2017 and the case of the Red Roads flats demolition in Glasgow to highlight the wider issues within the politics of social housing, the impact and consequences of sustained disinvestment in social housing and the inequality experienced within the social and geographical landscap

Culture and the Scottish Household Survey

In 2007 the Scottish Government introduced an outcomes based approach to culture set withina National Performance Framework. One of the main data sources to measure "culture" inScotland is the Scottish Household Survey (SHS). In this article, the SHS and its "Cultureand Sport" Module are explored to show how useful the data is within the ScottishGovernment's economic agenda. This way, the paper reflects on the usefulness of the maindata source used to understand cultural activity within Scotland. There are generaldifficulties measuring "culture", but overall the SHS provides adequate national data forScotland on cultural participation and attendance. However, the SHS cannot providein-depth local level information and provides limited data on non-participants. Other surveysin Scotland and England give some example practices that could be incorporated to improvesurvey outcomes. Overall, the SHS is a useful policy too

Facilitating creativity in dementia care: the co-construction of arts-based engagement

This paper seeks to understand the engagement of people with dementia in creative and arts-based activities by applying a relational model of citizenship and incorporating concepts of contextual and embodied learning from adult learning theory. A theoretically-driven secondary analysis of observational and interview data focuses on the engagement of staff, volunteers and people with dementia during an arts-based intervention in a day centre and care home. The processes through which learning is co-constructed between the person with dementia, staff/volunteer facilitators and peers in the group to co-produce a creative engaged experience involves: increasing confidence for learning, facilitating social and physical connections, and affirming creative self-expression. The role of facilitator is central to the process of creative engagement to reinforce a sense of agency amongst participants and recognise people’s prior experiences of learning and engagement in creative activities. People with dementia continue to learn and grow through engagement in creative activities to produce positive outcomes for the individual participants and for the care staff who observe and participate in this creativity. Facilitating creativity requires attention to lifelong experiences of learning in addition to the immediate interactional context to successfully integrate arts-based interventions in dementia care

Inclusive Living: ageing, adaptations and future-proofing homes

Inclusive Living is a concept and practical intervention developed from a systematic literature review and co-produced by the Scottish housing sector. The approach aims to implement inclusive change in areas of development, repair, maintenance and service delivery by facilitating longer term planning within housing organisations to create homes that are accessible and allow for ageing-in-place. This synthesis paper critically examines the theories that support the Inclusive Living framework, focusing on adaptations (also known as home and environmental modifications to support accessibility). Current challenges around accessibility are explored: poor-quality homes, disinvestment in repair and maintenance, and the fragmented policy landscape and funding around adaptations. Proactive approaches to adaptations are found to lead to better outcomes for individuals and they need to be understood as a ‘public issue’ not a ‘private trouble’ to encourage investment in housing sector solutions. Practice relevance An Inclusive Living approach supports housing strategy holistically, examining not only physical modifications but also how housing facilitates social relationships and connections, tackling structural inequalities, and supporting social inclusion. This entails a life-course approach, where inclusivity in planning for the future can benefit all groups. A more systematic approach to planning for housing and ageing will be impactful, inclusive and proactive