This chapter surveys the key disciplinary areas and theoretical concepts which
underpin the discussions, arguments and conclusions of the subsequent chapters. The small initial section aims to set the scene for the challenge, responsibility and
implications of impacting the cultural landscape of a city.
In 1899, John Lee stood before the Literary & Philosophical Society of
Liverpool and told them a story (abbreviated version copied below).79 For context: at this point, Glasgow’s wealthy tobacco merchant, Stephen Mitchell, had been dead for 25 years, and it would be another five years before Glasgow Corporation would take the decision to build the library which bears his name. The story Lee told is fictional, but was intended to effect change in the city of Liverpool through presentation of a vision in which culture would be supported as an essential part of city life. In that regard, Lee’s tale bears a relationship to this thesis, which hopes to present a vision for the city of Glasgow that will be as transformative.
A Dream of a People’s University of Liverpool
It came to pass that after the Liverpool Corporation had provided a perfect system of trams; after electricity was introduced into every house for lighting and heating; after every householder had become a reader of the People’s
Library, and at whose door books were left daily by the city library delivery cart;
[…] the city fathers foregathered to discuss in what way municipalization could best be extended. Many proposals were put forward. It was suggested on the one hand that a municipal magazine should be launched with a view to discover any latent literary talent which might lurk blushingly unseen in the by-streets and alleys. Would it not be well worth the expenditure of tax and ratepayers’ money to uncover a Kipling or a William Watson, and thus add lustre to the fame of the city— the first literary city out of London! The proposal was warmly discussed,
79 John Lee, ‘A Dream of a People’s University of Liverpool’, Proceedings of the Liverpool Literary &
Philosophical Society, 88.LIII (1899), 107–15.
54 and so far the Council was swayed very strongly in its favour. Had it not been for an Irishman, the motion would have been carried at once. He raised a novel Objection. A municipal magazine would pay its way undoubtedly, and that was an insuperable difficulty.
The Council sighed heavily; the Irishman had won the day. But he was not satisfied with a destructive policy. He wished to be constructive, and so he boldly proposed that the Council should undertake the higher education of its citizens.
At least, he said, it was as important that the Council should supply culture as that it should supply bread and light and heat and carriage from place to place.80
There are striking parallels between the issues which feature within Lee’s tale and those which occupy the minds of today’s academics and policymakers
engaged in the various fields of cultural development and policy. In this, we see desire for urban municipal development, the possibility of city branding through the
leveraging of cultural success, and literature as a powerful force for individual
development and achievement within the wider world. The struggle with deployment of resource is also here, along with the responsibility to the taxpayer, leading to difficult decisions around what could be achieved. Above all, Lee’s story tugs on the Council’s civic responsibility to provide those things which its citizens need, and that this should include culture; a commodity as essential as bread, light and heat.
It is almost 120 years since Lee’s speech before the Liverpool Literary &
Philosophical Society, and although there has been positive change in many areas, the most recent research shows there are still barriers to participation and progress within the cultural sector. Attempts at improving social mobility with the arts have also been criticised; as author and journalist Kit de Wall recently wrote, ‘the notion of
80 John Lee, pp. 107–8.
55 social mobility has always smacked of: “How can we help you to be more like us?” It seems to say that to be working class is to be a failure’.81
The report: Panic! Social Class, Taste and Inequalities in the Creative Industries (2018) was published during the completion phase of this thesis.82 It presents striking findings on social mobility in the sector, which have resonance with the situated and specific experiences of this work, including the central claim that ‘the cultural and creative sector is marked by significant exclusions of those from working class social origins’.83 The report explores some specifics about this exclusion and considers perceptions of class, gender and ethnicity as factors. Interestingly, it
exposes the lack of ability by those who are on the ‘inside’ of the creative industries to perceive (or accept) the structural inequalities. This inside/outside dichotomy is reflected in the ethnography of Aye Write! in Chapter 3 and Sunny Govan Community Radio in Chapter 4. It also surfaces in the concerns of Glasgow’s spoken work
community in Chapter 5, and the call for a strengthening of mitigating social networks in Chapter 6. Clearly, there remains much work to be done to remove inequalities in the cultural sector, and I hope this thesis can help find those solutions. That same goal is a significant driver for the proposed repositioning of Glasgow Life’s role within literary Glasgow.
Instrumentalism and complexity
When we talk about Glasgow Life’s desire for a strategy for the development of literary Glasgow, we must engage with the enactment of policy with intent. The way in which policy is enacted and the expectation of the types of results which may be brought about by this action, is crucial. Specifically, in relation to this research, policy can be designed to support the emergence of solution to problems, or it can be
81 Kit de Waal, ‘Kit de Waal: “Make Room for Working Class Writers”’, The Guardian, 10 February 2018, section Books <https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/feb/10/kit-de-waal-where-are-all-the-working-class-writers-> [accessed 15 October 2018].
82 Orian Brook, Dave O’Brien, and Mark Taylor, Panic! Social Class, Taste and Inequalities in the Creative Industries, 2018 <http://createlondon.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Panic-Social-Class-Taste-and-Inequalities-in-the-Creative-Industries1.pdf> [accessed 8 October 2018].
83 Brook, O’Brien, and Taylor, p. 2.
56 designed to bring about specific results in relation to those problems. The
instrumental use of cultural policy to bring about social change is a version of the second of these options, in which the policy being enacted and the issue being targeted exist in entirely different realms. The justification of reader development efforts in Glasgow on the basis of their effect on average earnings many years from now, is one example of this raised at a Vision for Glasgow Libraries meeting.84
Public policy has a contested but necessary relationship with instrumentalism.
It is to be expected policy should concern itself with bringing about positive change in some aspect of everyday life. In some cases the instrumental use of cultural policy is applied inappropriately or has unintended negative consequences: this has been well documented within the creative industries. Gray (2002, 2017) identifies the problem of policy ‘attachment’, in which arts organisations modify positions and expected outcomes towards social and economic improvements, in order to attract funding.85 Belfiore (2002, 2012) questions the efficacy of such instrumental use of the arts while acknowledging the reasons for it.86 She states the aim of her 2002 paper ‘is to show how instrumental cultural policies are not sustainable in the long term’.87 She also documents the deployment of ‘defensive instrumentalism’ through the New Labour years and beyond. The literary sector is Brouillette’s (2014) primary focus, and she critiques the neoliberal model, which leveraged the cultural sector for political ends.88 In her survey of the creative economy, she identifies the damage done to our
perception of value of the creative arts, particularly literature, through an over-reliance on measuring value through ascribed instrumental outputs.
84 Participant in workshop as part of data gathering for A Vision for Glasgow Libraries, 3/09/2015;
‘A Vision For Glasgow Libraries’.
85 C. Gray, ‘Local Government and the Arts’, Local Government Studies, 28.1 (2002), 77–90
<https://doi.org/10.1080/714004133>; Clive Gray, ‘Local Government and the Arts Revisited’, Local Government Studies, 43.3 (2017), 315–22 <https://doi.org/10.1080/03003930.2016.1269758>.
86 Eleonora Belfiore, ‘Art as a Means of Alleviating Social Exclusion: Does It Really Work? A Critique of Instrumental Cultural Policies and Social Impact Studies in the UK’, International Journal of Cultural Policy, 8.1 (2002), 91–106 <https://doi.org/10.1080/102866302900324658>; Belfiore, ‘“Defensive Instrumentalism” and the Legacy of New Labour’s Cultural Policies’.
87 Belfiore, ‘Art as a Means of Alleviating Social Exclusion’, p. 104.
88 Brouillette.
57 It can be easy to be consumed by these genuine concerns about the
instrumentalisation of cultural policy, but it is worth considering instrumentalism is not in itself a terrible thing. Generally, we do want our policymakers to be creating or modifying policy to have positive outcomes. While the funding models and political use of the cultural industries over the past three decades have clearly caused problems around cultural policy, it is counterproductive to dismiss any positive secondary effects of cultural production or engagement. This argument is stated clearly by Gibson who points to ‘the last 200 years – of cultural programmes and policy in Anglophone countries’ as evidence that cultural instrumentalism did not begin with New Labour and goes on to argue the arts and culture are in fact
‘constitutively instrumental’89.
We have museums, art galleries and libraries today, as a result of the supposed positive effects of cultural exposure or engagement, and there are few who would argue against the idea that participation in cultural activity can be positive on a personal, social and societal level. The extent of that positive effect, how it can be measured and whether we can leverage this, are open for debate, and academics such as Belfiore have raised concerns about overreach in impact claims.90
Instrumentalism casts a shadow across the scope of this research, and is part of the exploration of the Aye Write! festival in Chapter Three. In the methodology section of the Introduction, I discussed an extended period of participatory ethnography carried out within the team that delivers Aye Write! Through this I observed, and participated in, the festival’s struggle to balance its reader
development ethos with the need to justify funding. At higher levels within the organisation there was pressure for that justification to be through the instrumental frame. Continued commitment of human and financial resources to Aye Write! would be easier to protect and defend, if a direct link could be made between festival activity and improved youth literacy or employment prospects, or a reduction in poverty.
89 L. Gibson, ‘In Defence of Instrumentality’, Cultural Trends, 17.4 (2008), 247–57 (p. 249).
90 Belfiore, ‘Art as a Means of Alleviating Social Exclusion’; Eleonora Belfiore, ‘On Bullshit in Cultural Policy Practice and Research: Notes from the British Case’, International Journal of Cultural Policy, 15.3 (2009), 343–59 <https://doi.org/10.1080/10286630902806080>.
58 Many arts and cultural organisations have experienced a similar struggle with
external funders but in this case, the struggle is almost entirely within a single organisation, Glasgow Life.
Much of the difficulty with cultural instrumentalism lies not with the intent for positive outcomes but with the way it is enacted. It is a form of reductionism in which a cascade of linear steps (perhaps leaps) are taken. A sequence of actions of positive instrumental intent, all aligned to policy but unable to acknowledge complexity, leads to what I would call cascading linearity. This rational, mechanistic series of choices and actions appear to be justifiable in close-up, but ultimately fail to deliver the outcome desired and in the process, undermine the ethos and core values of the activity itself. This mechanistic application of instrumental intent is one explanation
‘why bad things happen to good policies’.91 It could be argued there are situations in which the linear approach to policy is the best one. Having the resources to apply initiatives with a specific purpose and towards defined outcomes is a great thing when it works. But policymakers should not consider this the only way to operate. It is a theory of action, but it is only one among many.
Chapman and Edwards (2004) describe the failure of governments and organisations to see beyond the linear, mechanistic frame, and to accept the need for complexity thinking. In the preface to System Failure, Chapman confesses to
underestimating the extent of the issue:
In System Failure I argue that the dominant approach to policymaking was based on mechanistic and reductionist thinking. This is
actually more deeply embedded in our culture, particularly the culture of government, than I had appreciated.92
91 Jake Chapman and Nigel Edwards, System Failure Why Governments Must Learn to Think Differently (London: Demos, 2004).
92 Chapman and Edwards. p. 10.
59 Recognising these policies are less effective than they would hope, this same
mechanistic approach is applied to attempts to improve policymaking. The evidence-based approach is one aspect of this, and while attractive in its apparent rationality, is flawed in its inability to move beyond the linear cause and effect frame and into a new way of approaching complex problems:
the ‘evidence-based’ approach presumes a linear, or at
least unproblematic, relationship between cause and effect. In fact, complex systems involve hundreds of nested feedback loops, which result in significantly non-linear behaviour. Change in such systems is at least as much to do with internal structure as with external
interventions.93
Organisations and policymakers have a strong inclination to cling to what Chapman refers to as ‘the presumptions of control and predictability’.94 He contends this is based partly in how they would like the world to work, and in part due to political and career pressures. It is not a career advancing move to admit lack of control, or uncertainty about outcomes. It is of no great surprise that a large civic organisation such as Glasgow Life, accountable for its handling of public money and use of the city’s resources, would be cautious about moving away from a model in which they can draw a straight line between the cost of a particular action and the intended effect on the community, even if that action is frequently unsuccessful.
The complexity approach would allow and work with such uncertainty, rather than wishing it away. It would also allow deployment of direct, linear action when the circumstances allow. One of the liberating and valuable aspects of the complexity frame is it embraces all other frames, including itself. The urgent need for Glasgow Life to embrace a complexity theory approach to literary Glasgow, is an overarching theme within this thesis and the argument is made for this in Chapter Five.
93 Chapman and Edwards, p. 11.
94 Chapman and Edwards, p. 11.
60 Complexity Theory provides an important conceptual foundation for this research. It is beyond the boundaries of any single academic discipline and in fact lends itself to an evolving understanding of research subjects which display the features of complex adaptive systems. The alignment between complexity and the pragmatist approach to research was introduced in the Methodology section. The complex nature of the city and of the urban cultural system within it, poses a challenge to the instrumental interventions favoured by policymakers to address issues such as poor literacy. This requires an approach that marries the obligations of government with the challenges and opportunities revealed through complexity theory, an issue explored by Cairney and Geyer.95 Sanderson brings the issues of complexity and policy-making together. In calling for a move beyond instrumental rationality to more ‘intelligent policy making’, he finds value in the pragmatist perspective.96
Key authors in guiding the applicability of complexity theory within this research include Anderson on organisational studies; Klein and Newell on
interdisciplinarity; Cairney, Geyer and Colander and Kupers on public policy; and Comunian on creative city networks.97 Complexity theory is not able to provide solutions to all the challenges facing Glasgow Life and literary Glasgow, but it offers a frame of understanding in which the entangled needs and relationship of the sector can be negotiated and potentially influenced.
Problematisation
The culture-led regeneration discussed later in this chapter is a significant example of the identification of problems within a city and the local government response to those. I have acknowledged the defining of these problems, and who gets to do the defining, are issues which continue to haunt the narrative of Glasgow’s application of
95 Cairney and Geyer.
96 Ian Sanderson, ‘Complexity,’practical Rationality’and Evidence-Based Policy Making’, Policy &
Politics, 34.1 (2006), 115–132; Sanderson, ‘Intelligent Policy Making for a Complex World’.
97 Philip Anderson and others, ‘Introduction to the Special Issue: Applications of Complexity Theory to Organization Science’, Organization Science, 10.3 (1999), 233–236; Klein; Newell; Paul Cairney,
‘Complexity Theory in Political Science and Public Policy’, Political Studies Review, 10.3 (2012), 346–358;
Cairney and Geyer; R. Comunian; Colander and Kupers.
61 cultural regeneration. In the background to such initiatives is a culture of
problematisation – now recognised as a common feature of government at all levels and policymakers generally – which approaches cultural participation, creative industries development, and culture-led regeneration as a set of problems that require government action to resolve. Bacci puts this succinctly:
Government is understood to be a ‘problematizing activity’ (Rose & Miller, 1992: p. 181), in which ’policy cannot get to work without first problematizing its territory’ (Osborne, 1997: p. 174). To intervene, it is argued, government, including but beyond the state, has to target something as a ‘problem’ that needs ‘fixing’. The critical task, in this account, becomes examining the ways in which specific issues are problematized.98
Local and national government in the UK has built on this approach over many years, validated by a certain amount of success that has obstructed any fundamental need to look for an alternative. Problematisation is an appropriate response in many instances, such as the emergence of acute issues to which timely, coordinated efforts could be applied: a major employer announces closure of a factory central to local industry; or a sudden increase in youth crime in one ward of the city. Some
endeavours may require a different approach. The creation of a garden, the running of a kindergarten and the writing of a symphony could each be approached as a set of problems to be solved, but this would not necessarily bring about the best outcome.
Problematisation suits the structural frameworks of government. Issues are reported, problems defined, strategy decided, resources deployed and results measured. It is an approach which appears to work within given limits of resource, time and scope; it has also come under criticism. According to Turnbull99 this
98 Carol Bacchi, ‘The Turn to Problematization: Political Implications of Contrasting Interpretive and Poststructural Adaptations’, Open Journal of Political Science, 5.1 (2015), 1–12
<https://doi.org/10.4236/ojps.2015.51001>. p6
99 Nick Turnbull, ‘The Questioning Theory of Policy Practice: Outline of an Integrated Analytical Framework’, Critical Policy Studies, 7.2 (2013), p115 <https://doi.org/10.1080/19460171.2013.776501>.
62 apparent link ‘between clearly defined social problems and a rational policy analysis that aims to “solve” them in practice has been subjected to extensive criticism and
62 apparent link ‘between clearly defined social problems and a rational policy analysis that aims to “solve” them in practice has been subjected to extensive criticism and