MA Cultural Policy, Relations & Diplomacy

This module provides you with an introduction to the public governance of the cultural sectors, thought broadly (thus including arts, heritage, and, in some definitions, also the creative sectors), in the context of a wider dynamic complex system. The module highlights individual agency and explores leadership and other entrepreneurial patterns in the capacity to act within that sphere. You'll develop a critical understanding of individual agency and ability to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute to the governance and management of the arts, heritage and cultural sectors.  

The importance, goals and history of public policies for culture across the world, and at international/national/local levels, are critically discussed, while interrogating their underpinning theoretical foundations and strategic and operational frameworks.

The module emphasises the perspective of the individual as an actor in the system: policy-makers, officials, practitioners, audiences/public, and the organisations and networks where they congregate, are seen as having agency. Therefore, a critical understanding of the concept of leadership is central to this module.  

Emphasis is given to exploring how leadership operates in the development and implementation of cultural public policies as a tool for societal change by policy-makers, processes that can also be shaped through lobbying, advocacy and grassroots resistance by civil society and arts/cultural organisations.

Nowadays, the traditional government-to-government relations between countries are being challenged to incorporate a plurality of actors. In the realm of international cultural relations, the importance of non-state actors is undeniable, be it an arts organisation working at international level or individuals developing people-to-people relations and defining themselves in a multidimensional framework of identity.

This module will introduce you to the major theories and ideas within international cultural relations and will provide insight into its practice by a wide range of actors (governments, international organisations, corporations, non-governmental organisations and individuals). The role of the arts, their practitioners and mediators, and the agency of these individuals, as cultural leaders, is highlighted in relation to their importance in the establishment, maintenance and development of relations between the peoples of different countries and different communities.

Topics include learning about the history and theory of international cultural relations, discussing the notions of cultural relations, cultural diplomacy and public diplomacy, nation branding, analysing the relation between the arts, heritage, identity and diplomacy, investigating the concepts of cultural diversity, intercultural dialogue, mutuality, cultural and linguistic human rights, soft power and hegemony, and connecting these with contemporary developments in areas such as communication technology, transport and economic flows.

The module places emphasis on the discussion and reflection on current themes and issues at policy and practice level in this transdisciplinary area. It encourages a reflexive and entrepreneurial approach to international cultural relations, by giving you the possibility to actively engage in the area by developing your own research and/or project proposals, relating them to wider debates.

The module covers a range of trans-disciplinary contemporary issues that concern those researching and practicing in the areas of cultural relations and cultural diplomacy. It considers key questions faced by countries, regions, cities, organisations and individuals in creating, leading and delivering policy and projects to face current challenges. The topics are broad and changeable responding to the current issues concerning policy makers, practitioners and the public engaged in the field – an indicative list of topics to be covered in the sessions is provided below. 

Those areas are addressed in a rigorous and structured way using methodologies conducive to student in-depth and collaborative learning. Lessons learned, good practices, and the processes by which they are identified by international cultural relations practitioners and organisations are critically examined. Learning is delivered through lectures, seminars, case studies, group work and presentations. Study visits using the resources of London and potentially other cities are also envisaged. You'll be able to use voluntary placements (either sourced by themselves or facilitated by the tutor, the latter only for MA CPRD) and/or your own work experiences as a basis to develop your assessment.

The module, while providing space for student-led learning through individual and collaborative presentations, works around topical and geographical sessions, each representing a contemporary issue and/or area of current interest in international cultural relations.

The dissertation is an extended piece of written work of 12,000 words, more or less 10%, on a research topic of your choice (but subject to approval by the Supervisor) within the areas covered by the programme of studies. It comprises a critical review of the literature and/or original analysis of documentary and/or other evidence on a chosen topic within the fields of your programme. The dissertation is intended to assess the full range of students’ abilities and to apply a range of learning outcomes, that the programme enables students to develop. In particular, it enables assessment of the ability to design, develop and write an advanced research project using primary and/or secondary materials appropriate to the topic and according to the necessary conventions of scholarly work. It requires independent motivation and self-directed learning, under supervision, and enables students to demonstrate competence for critical analysis and sustained persuasive argument. 

The dissertation provides you with the opportunity to fully demonstrate your ability to devise, develop, conduct, and deliver a significant independent piece of original research relevant to cultural policy, cultural relations and cultural diplomacy, using a self-reflective and critical analysis approach. It will showcase your understanding of the complexity of the diverse and changing relationships between culture/arts/heritage, politics, and international relations, focusing on a particular aspect/problem/challenge. The dissertation will evidence your skill as an independent and creative learner able to exercise initiative and personal responsibility for your own learning and planning processes.  

Masters’ dissertations do not have to involve empirical research, but they do require engagement with a substantive (or specific) area of relevance to issues and topics discussed throughout the MA programme. We expect that your final dissertation will reflect the learning from one or several of the core modules of the programme. 

Contemporary Issues in Cultural Policy explores a range of trans-disciplinary topics that concern those researching and practicing in the areas of cultural policy. The module will consider key questions faced by all countries, regions and cities in creating and delivering policy. As globally most cultural ministries and their agencies are also responsible for a range of areas of policy often including international cultural relations, tourism, information and broadcasting and sport and also cross over with other ministries responsible for foreign affairs, education and creative industries the scope of the module will be broad.

Those topics will be addressed in a rigorous and structured way using methodologies conducive to student in depth and collaborative learning. Learning will be delivered through lectures, seminars, case studies, group work and presentations. Students will be taught in a single lecture environment each week before breaking off into smaller groups to conduct topical seminars, discussions or group work.

This module critically analyses the growth and character of cultural and creative tourism and the growing relationship between the creative industries and cultural tourism. We'll discuss notions of the creative class, the creative city, and the experience economy, which have been used to underpin strategies in cultural tourism development. Ideas about the growing sophistication of cultural tourists and their changing tastes suggest that travellers wish to move beyond consumption to ‘prosumption’. We'll connect directly with the way how economies change and how it makes imperative the definition of new touristic products, services, and experiences. 

With increasing competition between tourism destinations, the development of timely, attractive, and innovative tourism products has never been more necessary – whether using the historic environment in creative ways or exploiting contemporary cultural forms and/or tourism resources. 

This module looks at the governance of cultural tourism at different levels (from UNESCO to local government and local partnerships), best practices in destination management, and the development of new tourism products. The geographic spread of cultural tourism and the greater diversity of products, necessitates the examination of issues related to contested meanings, authenticity, ethics, and sustainability which has become increasingly significant in the sector.

In this module, you'll explore the relationship between culture, tourism, and regeneration. Tourism has long played a role in the economic, social and physical transformation of towns, cities and rural areas.  However, in recent decades the nature of tourism, particularly city tourism, has changed, and concerns with sustainability have become of utmost importance. 

You'll analyse the growth and increasing diversity of cultural tourism, the role it plays in urban centres and their regions and the ways in which cities, regions and rural areas, have reinvented and rebranded themselves as centres of leisure and recreation consumption using major cultural infrastructure investment, heritage commodification, events, and festivals.

This module will introduce students to a range of business modelling tools, and provide insight in to the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs and enterprises. The module has evolved from NESTA’s Creative Pioneer Programme and will use the Modelling Techniques that were designed and have evolved from The Academy and Insight Out which provide approaches to commercialising creativity.

It will critically review the key characteristics of successful enterprises, entrepreneurs and leaders, within the cultural and more commercially focused creative industries. It will look at the range of business models that exist and review how best to build a financially sustainable organisation.

Students will be introduced to a range of techniques:

1. Relationship Modelling – this will assist students to understand the range of business models in the creative industries, and to create the most appropriate route to market; it will consider the relationship that the originator of the creative idea has to the production, distribution and the audience/customer/client; it uncovers the student’s relationship to “reward”.

2. Evidence Modelling – this model uses Marshall McLuhan’s Tetrad Model to review the likely impact of the idea; it helps makes the enterprise tangible and to ensure that the entrepreneur remains in control of the effects of their ideas. Using the modelling technique helps students to articulate their values and the benefits of their ideas.

3. Blueprint Modelling – an approach to creating an operating plan which will move their idea to market, articulating all of the activities and responsibilities required.
Consequence Modelling – using all of the knowledge from the modelling techniques, this will uncover the financial consequences of the decisions made. It will introduce them to basic financial modelling concepts, and ensure they are comfortable with the financial language of creative entrepreneurs.

The discourses of contemporary 'Leadership' and 'Enterprise Theory' are, much like the wider discourse of Management Theory itself, in a state of critical transformation. The authority, validity, and appropriateness of that type of scientifically influenced or 'positivist' thinking that informed so much of the early 'Taylorist' and 'Fordist' influenced work of the so-called 'first age' (Snowden, 2005) of Management Theory has been thrown into disrepute, as have many of the premises of that more contextually aware and 'constructively' influenced work that informed the so-called 'second age'.

Undermined by both the universalising and de-contextualising tendencies of that type of thinking that defined the 'first age', and the still latent problems of the 'implementation' or 'internalisation' (Nonaka, 1995) of the insights of that thinking that defined the 'second age,' we are now in a position in which – in what is increasing being recognised as the 'third age' of Management Theory – all of the principal discourses of Management Theory from Knowledge Management, to Organisational Theory, Enterprise Theory, Innovation, and Leadership, are having to come to terms with the difficult question of how they can still deal with their various objects of analysis, whether that be the essential nature, qualities, or conditions of successful Leadership, Enterprise, or Innovation, in a relatively organized, structured, and predictable way, and yet a way that does not undermine, foreclose, or delimit the essential 'complexity', unpredictability, and 'emergent' qualities of these phenomena and the contexts in which they arise. This is a problem that has seen a pronounced emphasis in recent years on the analysis of the role that the individual 'creative', 'entrepreneurial', or 'self-actualising' subject plays in the 'narrative' construction of their own relationships to those contexts in which they exist, innovate, lead, or learn (Tsoukas, 2005).

This module will introduce students to all of the main theories that have contributed to the evolution of this discourse from the early scientifically orientated, 'positivist', and 'essentialist' theories of Frederick Winslow Taylor in The Principles of Scientific Management (1911), to Joseph Schumpeter’s work on Innovation as “creative destruction” (1934), to Gordon Allport (1921) and Kurt Lewin’s (1935) early work on 'Trait Theory' and 'Situational' theories of personality as they have been applied to Leadership, to Ralph Stacey (2001, 2003, 2010), and Henry Chesborough’s (2003, 2006, 2010) recent work on 'Organisational Complexity' and 'Open Innovation', to more recent 'Transactional', 'Transformational', and 'Organic' Theories of Leadership, to Ikujiro Nonaka’s (1995) and Hubert Dreyfus’ (1997) 'ontologically' orientated theories of Innovation, and Roger Martin (2009) and Armand Hatchuel’s (2010) recent work on the value of various 'design thinking' lead creative research methodologies to the articulation of how we can most ‘productively’ act, think, innovate, and lead, within the ever increasing 'complexity' of current business environments.

The principal objective of this archaeological analysis of the history of the evolution and development contemporary Management Theory, and particularly as it has been applied to the discourses of contemporary 'Enterprise' and 'Leadership' Theory, is to enable students to develop a comprehensive understanding of not only the history of the discourse but also how the insights of these theories can be practically applied to the conceptualisation and analysis of their own projects—thus overcoming the much debated 'relevancy gap' in so much contemporary Management Theory and education.

Particular emphasis will also be placed on the 'cross-cultural' significance of this work in relation to both Gert Hoftstede (2001) and Richard E. Nisbett’s (2005) work on the differing 'dimensions' of cultural belief, value, and understanding.

Although art museums use the words interpretation, education and communication as a way of differentiating between individual departments and the type of responsibility staff members have, there are important fundamental differences inherent within each term that are rarely examined or explained. This module will seek to explore these differences, and look closely at each of the three main concepts: interpretation, education and communication.

Individual sessions will examine the way in which art museums define their relationship to content, meaning and context, how they communicate their message, their interest in creating a suitable brand and image, the role of library and archive, development, fundraising and conservation.
There will be an emphasis on examining education and learning, the importance of access, diversity and the range of activities museums develop to attract new visitors and address the diversity and needs of an increasingly large visiting public.

The module tutor will introduce theories which relate to the writing of interpretative text, and consider how the experience of looking at art might be different if text were not available. There will also be a discussion regarding the role of the aesthetic in art education and the range of expectations visitors have from a museum visit.

Some might say that Museums and Galleries of art have been forced to develop an entrepreneurial strategy so that they can remain free, look after their buildings, realise ambitious new projects, compete with other forms of entertainment, including educational and leisure venues and establish themselves as important players on the international art scene. It may be unsurprising that working in an entrepreneurial way has come naturally to those in the creative industries and museums and galleries have enthusiastically embraced the challenges before them to increase audiences, embrace issues of diversity and offer a visitor experience that is both educational and enjoyable.

This ten-week module takes place on Friday early evenings and focuses on Tate Britain, Tate Modern, the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. Individual sessions examine how museums use their collections for education, interpretation and event programming and have successfully developed a dedicated communications strategy to market, promote, fund-raise and attract sponsorship.

Museums and Galleries of art make an important contribution to income generation in the UK. To achieve this successful outcome it is necessary for them to understand the role that culture plays in our society. The manner in which they display works of art, provide information and education, are committed to making their collections more accessible and generally strive to be welcoming, entertaining, friendly and rich in diverse opportunities shows how well they have understood the part they play in establishing culture at the heart of all that we do. This ten week course will focus on the growing importance of cultural organisations, how taste is shaped not only by museums and galleries but also by designers of fashion and lifestyle products and how commercial organisations are keen to engage in large-scale cultural projects as a way of attracting a new, younger audience and establishing themselves as key players in a modern society.

Individual sessions will focus on the many definitions of culture from Raymond Williams to Brian Eno; the connections between culture and class using the work of Bourdieu and Tony Bennett, the issue of taste as Greenberg saw it and more recently as the type of lifestyle choices we make. The course will also use case studies of large scale public cultural projects like the Unilever series in Tate Modern’s turbine Hall and the Fourth Plinth project in Trafalgar Square.

Recent research in Asia has questioned the widely held assumption that tourism arose in the UK during the mid-19th century as a result of Thomas Cook’s introduction of the ‘package’, a combination of the cost of travel and another service.

It has been shown that travel and leisure existed in early Han Dynasty China as scholars and priests explored mountainous areas giving rise to one of the civilizations most enduring art forms, the landscape painting. Travel and leisure also seem to have gone hand in hand with that other widespread phenomenon, the pilgrimage, with the attendant development of hostelries, storytelling and souvenir production.

Industrial forms of tourism were introduced to Asia by European colonial powers in the late 19th and early 20th century with the development of hilltop stations to provide relief for officials and merchants working in tropical areas. Grand hotels were introduced with the Sarkies brothers opening up famous establishments in Myanmar (Burma), Singapore and Indonesia (Dutch East Indies). The inter war cruise ship industry made Asia accessible to wealthy Europeans and Americans with perceptible impacts on Asian hospitality traditions and visual and performing arts.

Western artists used the opportunities provided by tourism to open studios in Asia, notably Bali, often working alongside indigenous artists to create hybrid and highly creative art forms. The post-war era opened up parts of Asia to Western mass tourism, notably the so-called ‘rest and recreation’ of the US military in Thailand.

Tourism was also used as a nation building strategy by Asian leaders such as Suharto in Indonesia to encourage his countrymen to travel and to get to know their country and to project a tourist friendly external image of stability.

As the Asian economies developed, countries like Japan became major sources of outbound tourism with accompanying impacts on Western retail practices, especially with regard to fashion and luxury. By 2014 China had become the largest outbound and inbound tourism market with the introduction of China-friendly hotel ranking systems in Europe, such as the 5-dragons scheme, began to be experimented with in Europe.

Indian outbound tourism also became significant with some novel characteristics, such as an interest in the hybrid Indian-British culinary tradition of the ‘curry house’. Tourism is also one of the drives that has spread Asian culinary traditions around the world.