• Login
• Admin

Cox, Tamsin (2024) Issues in cultural policy studies: Raymond Williams and questions of theory, method and position in the construction of intellectual work addressing cultural policy in the UK. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.

PDF (Thesis - as examined) - Repository staff only until 20 July 2026. Subsequently available to Anyone - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader Available under Licence Creative Commons Attribution. Download (1MB)

Abstract

Taking the field of cultural policy studies as its object of study, this thesis asks how the construction of the field shapes its engagement with key questions of cultural policy. In examining the construction of the field, this means looking at the way in which it formulates its object of study, proposes and applies methods, privileges or discards different types of knowledge and knowledge traditions, frames the role of knowledge producers and intellectual workers in the field and, ultimately, advances a proposition for its own value as a field of knowledge. Whilst cultural policy studies has engaged to some extent with questions of reflexivity in policy-facing work I argue that a fuller enquiry would demonstrate the way in which this construction limits or affects the field’s capacity to engage more fully in the political and moral impetus which some reflexive work identifies.

As a way into this enquiry, I argue that Raymond Williams is a key reference point for debates about the relationship between cultural studies and policy. I contend that he provides a meaningful source through which to investigate key threads in contemporary cultural policy studies, including the location of arts and humanities knowledge practices, the field’s connection with its historical antecedents and the role for individuals, knowledge practices and the collective field in imagining alternatives. I examine Williams’ work along these key threads, demonstrating his role in democratising arts and humanities knowledge, re-establishing intellectual histories, theorising the relationship between culture and society and intervening in the policy and political spaces.

Through reading Williams I establish key elements of the construction of contemporary cultural policy studies. The absence of theorisation and connection with older theorisations is identified, and I argue that this limits both the value of structural analysis and the potential for cultural policy studies to contribute meaningfully in moving cultural policy discourse forward. I examine areas in which knowledge from within cultural practices – within arts and humanities knowledge practices – is used to create a more complete and complex picture of meaning which takes place in areas of policy concern like cultural labour, and advocate for greater attention to be paid to areas in which cultural policy studies currently provides an incomplete account. Finally I argue that cultural policy studies would benefit from paying greater attention to its formation, and to applying that analysis across the range of its activities, from the critical to fast-growing areas like formal policy engagement.

Item Type:	Thesis (University of Nottingham only) (PhD)
Supervisors:	Mansell, James Newsinger, Jack
Keywords:	Raymond Williams, cultural studies, cultural policy, cultural policy studies
Subjects:	H Social sciences > HM Sociology P Language and literature > PR English literature
Faculties/Schools:	UK Campuses > Faculty of Arts > School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies
Item ID:	77453
Depositing User:	Cox, Tamsin
Date Deposited:	20 Jul 2024 04:40
Last Modified:	25 Jul 2024 09:55
URI:	https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/77453

Actions (Archive Staff Only)

Edit View