City Research Online

Abstract

This thesis investigates the origin and development of EC cultural policy through four case studies of policy formation. The four cases selected occurred in the pre-Maastricht period, 1955-1988. The first two policy experiences correspond to a pre-history of the EC´s cultural policy, the latter two resulted in authoritative policy decisions by EC institutions. The research objectives include historical understanding of this policy experience and an examination of the process of European policy formation. It draws upon archive material from the Historical Archives of the European Union. This material is organised and analytically narrated around the events that make up each episode. The approach is theoretically oriented case research – each experience studied corresponds to a policy episode. These policy episodes are analysed through a combined theoretical framework based on Kingdon´s multiple streams model (1995), which explains the pre-decisional and decision-making stages of the policy-making process, and on institutional processualism which seeks to attain a causal understanding of these processes that is sensitive to institutional context. This thesis represents one of the first applications of this model in the field of cultural policy. The comparative approach deployed identifies similarities and differences among the four episodes studied and compares the dynamics of the policy process between them with a view to generating theoretical generalisations about the formation of cultural policy in the EC in the period of interest. The application of Kingdon’s model to European public-policy to an extent tested the model, though ultimately it demonstrates its flexibility and relevance to a variety of agenda situations and analysis. The model was less successful in explaining policy formulation, in this instance, which is explained by the pervading institutional reach of the EC Treaties. A specific interest of Kingdon´s is policy entrepreneurship and how it affects the policy process and this is also a main interest of this research. The model worked well here but proved limited in that it generated only a partial explanation for the agency of cultural policy entrepreneurs whose motivations, we found, are intrinsic and specific to cultural policy.

Publication Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Departments:	Doctoral Theses School of Communication & Creativity > Media, Culture & Creative Industries > Culture & the Creative Industries School of Communication & Creativity > School of Communication & Creativity Doctoral Theses

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