Great art for everyone? An examination of arts policy on participation and participatory decision making in England from 1997-2013

This thesis examines government policy on participation in the arts and participation in decision making from 1997-2013, which it has been claimed in both academic literature and arts policy discourse, was a significant feature of this period. It explores the gap between policy and practice and investigates the drivers and barriers to change in the arts. It further considers the implications broadening the range of voices involved in decision making may have on artistic practice and on the people who engage with the arts. The research takes as its starting point the analysis of contradictory views on power, recognising that some argue that dominant voices are always able to force out alternative viewpoints while others argue that that changing the agents involved in decision making will not only change the structures and practices, but the decisions themselves. Through analysis of grey literature, surveys of local authorities and elite interviews with cultural policy makers and advisers, consideration is given to whose voices are heard in policy making in the arts in England and how policy is interpreted and implemented. In addition, three case studies where participatory decision making has been used are analysed, in order to examine whether engaging a wider range of voices does yield different outcomes. The weight of empirical data collected moves this thesis beyond the theoretical perspectives described in the literature to examine the specifics of practice. By so doing it extends knowledge on the decision making process in the arts in England and fills a gap in research by illuminating the attitudes to and outcomes of different participatory decision making practices. The research reveals that a narrow range of voices has been involved in decision making in the arts, and that the arm’s length principle has contributed to a crisis of legitimacy for arts funding, by reducing both the accountability and transparency of arts policy. Strategies to widen the range of voices involved, to include members of the general public not only in consultation, but in decision making, have met with resistance within the arts sector. There is a common perception, among professional arts practitioners, that such practices would undermine expertise, limit creative risk, and that the arts sector could face a hostile public response. The case studies of participatory decision making examined here demonstrate that such fears need not be realised. Rather, such participatory practices can have powerful outcomes in terms of both building public value in the arts, and developing and broadening artistic practice. I confirm that the thesis is my own work; and that all published or other sources of material consulted have been acknowledged in notes to the text or the bibliography. I confirm that thesis has not been submitted for a comparable academic award

Failure seems to be the hardest word to say

Policy interventions, to increase participation, have long been informed by data demonstrating inequity in the subsidised cultural sector. However, it is less clear how evidence is employed to judge success or failure of initiatives to create greater equity. Indeed, quantitative surveys suggest a failure to change patterns of cultural participation. Despite this a large body of evaluation reports celebrate the ‘success’ of participatory projects. This article presents findings from UK research that explores how cultural participation policies might be improved by better acknowledgment of failures. The research involved interviews, questionnaires, workshops, observations and documentary analysis involving over 200 policymakers, cultural practitioners, and participants. It identified a cultural policy landscape that is not conducive to honesty or critical reflection and argues that without this it will persistently fail to learn or to deliver the scale of change required to create the equity it professes to desire

Situating the local in global cultural policy

David Stevenson - ORCID 0000-0002-8977-1818 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8977-1818From the growth of city regions to the calls for more localism, engaging with ‘the local’ has become an increasingly important part of cultural policy rhetoric in many countries (UNESCO, 2013; UCLG, 2019). Yet despite apparent recognition that the practices of culture are always situated (and hence local), contemporary cultural policy research tends to privilege the national or international as the primary site at which cultural policy is enacted and thus, can be reformed (Durrer, et al., 2018). For all of its increasing use ‘the local’ remains abstract, seemingly deployed to legitimate activity that is of debatable benefit to the places and practices imagined by its invocation.https://doi.org/10.1080/09548963.2019.164478028pubpub

Misty, Spellbound and the lost Gothic of British girls’ comics.

This article is a case study of the 1970s British girls’ comics Spellbound (DC Thomson, 1976–1977) and Misty (IPC, 1978–1980). These mystery anthology comics followed the more famous American horror comics from publishers like EC Comics - but were aimed at pre-teen girls. The article situates these comics with respect to Gothic critical theory and within the wider landscape of British girls’ comics. Firstly, it closely considers and compares the structure and content of their stories with respect to theories of the terror and horror Gothic. It discovers that both comics offer similar fare, with a subversive streak that undercuts established horror archetypes. The article then looks closely at both titles’ aesthetics and their use of the page to draw comparisons. It uses comics theory and Gothic cinematic theory to demonstrate that the appearance of Misty is more strongly Gothic than the aesthetic of Spellbound. Finally, it considers a selection of stories from both comics and analyses their common themes using Gothic critical theory. It argues that both comics rework Gothic themes into new forms that are relevant to their pre-teen and teenage readers. It concludes by summarising the study’s findings and suggesting that these comics offer a “Gothic for Girls” that is part cautionary tale and part bildungsroman. This article is published as part of a collection on Gothic and horror

Fantastically reasonable: ambivalence in the representation of science and technology in super-hero comics

A long-standing contrast in academic discussions of science concerns its perceived disenchanting or enchanting public impact. In one image, science displaces magical belief in unknowable entities with belief in knowable forces and processes and reduces all things to a single technical measure. In the other, science is itself magically transcendent, expressed in technological adulation and an image of scientists as wizards or priests. This paper shows that these contrasting images are also found in representations of science in super-hero comics, which, given their lowly status in Anglo-American culture, would seem an unlikely place to find such commonality with academic discourse. It is argued that this is evidence that the contrast constitutes an ambivalence arising from the dilemmas that science poses; they are shared rhetorics arising from and reflexively feeding a set of broad cultural concerns. This is explored through consideration of representations of science at a number of levels in the comics, with particular focus on the science-magic constellation, and enchanted and disenchanted imagery in representations of technology and scientists. It is concluded that super-hero comics are one cultural arena where the public meaning of science is actively worked out, an activity that unites “expert” and “non-expert” alike

From Sacred to Scientific: Epic Religion, Spectacular Science, and Charlton Heston’s Science Fiction Cinema

This paper analyses how long-1960s cinema responded to and framed public discourses surrounding religion and science. This approach allows for a discussion that extends beyond a critical study of the scholarly debates that surround the place of religion in science during a transitional period. Charlton Heston was an epic actor who went from literally playing God in The Ten Commandments (1956) to playing “god” as a messianic scientist in The Omega Man (1971). Best known for playing Moses, Heston became an unlikely science-based cinema star during the early 1970s. He was re-imagined as a scientist, but the religiosity of his established persona was inescapable. Heston and the science-based films he starred in capitalized upon the utopian promises of real science, and also the fears of the vocal activist counterculture. Planet of the Apes (1968), Omega Man (1971), Soylent Green (1973), and other science-based films made between 1968-1977 were bleak countercultural warnings about excessive consumerism, uncontrolled science, nuclear armament, irreversible environmental damage, and eventual human extinction. In this paper I argue that Heston’s transition from biblical epic star to science-fiction anti-hero represents the way in which the role and interpretation of science changed in post-classical cinema. Despite the shift from religious epic to science-based spectacle, religion remained a faithful component of Hollywood output indicating the ongoing connection between science and religion in US culture. I will consider the transition from sacred to science-based narratives and how religion was utilised across the production process of films that commented upon scientific advances