Intellectual and political landscape: the instrumentalism debate

Davies, S A

doi:10.1080/09548960802615398

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 4 publications

(4 reference statements)

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“…Instrumentalism provides guidance for discovery, realism provides guidance for theory validation, and reductionism provides guidance for exploration (Cacioppo, Semin, & Berntson, 2004). Instrumentalists provide theoretical orientation where sound theories are the tools for discovery (Davies, 2008). Realists provide theoretical orientation where existing theories can be validated (Ramoglue, 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Scholarly Views on Theory: Its Nature, Practical Application, and Relation to World View in Business Research

Thomas¹

2017

IJBM

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Understanding theory, its practical application, and how to select a theoretical framework for research studies is often a challenging problem for new graduate and doctoral business students. As these students explore theory use in various fields and the general academic body of knowledge, this task can become even more daunting and confusing. There does not appear to be a common definition of theory across or within different disciplines. Further, scholars disagree on the value of theory and its practical application. This paper explores the scholarly nature of theory, its application, and its relationship to world view. Examples and a discussion are provided to better help students absorb this important yet ambiguous topic.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In essence, a theory should be evaluated for its ability to be used to predict or explain a phenomenon rather than its ability to utilize it to depict reality (Davies, 2008). One example of this view is an examination of acupuncture.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scholarly Views on Theory: Its Nature, Practical Application, and Relation to World View in Business Research

Thomas¹

2017

IJBM

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“…As Davies (2008) notes, advocacy, or what he describes as 'bargaining', is used by museum managers to play the instrumentalist game with local authorities and demonstrate their value over and above the cultural sphere: they [some museum managers] often have to adopt instrumentalist strategies. They will in effect 'bargain' within the local authority, exchanging support for corporate objectives for additional resources.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Local government seeks to harness the cultural sector in general to a social policy role as it is used as a means of impacting positively on people's well-being through tackling social problems (Davies 2008). Thus, little consideration is given by the local powers-that-be to a view of culture that grants it a certain degree of autonomy as a value in its own right, at least in one respect of the manifold social life of culture.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing performance in publicly funded museums in England: effects, resistances and revisions

Tlili

2012

International Journal of Heritage Studies

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Based on accounts gathered from nine museums and four professional/policymaking bodies, as well as policy analysis, this article maps out and assesses the effects of and ways of experiencing the new managerialist mode of governance within the publicly funded museums in England, focusing specifically on performance management in museums. It will be argued that the performance management regime has impacted local authority museums and national museums in distinct ways, creating different professional/organisational cultures as a result. These impacts pertain specifically to the professional and organisational autonomy of museums, with significant differences between small local authority museums and large national museums. This has serious implications for the way different types of museum relate to new managerialism and their mode of functioning. Some of the negative and unintended impacts of the performance management regime have induced a reappraisal -initially championed by the art world -and a move towards lightening up the new managerialist overload and pressure by introducing some elements of a peer-review model and accommodating in some form the qualitative singularity of museum experience. I will conclude by reflecting on the underpinning assumptions of new managerialism in museums against the backdrop of the project of museum professionalism and the singularity of its creative work.

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“…Driven by a combination of an instrumentalist policy ethos (Davies, 2008;Gray, 2008Gray, , 2011Levitt, 2008), a certain cultural populism with a consumerist bent (McGuigan, 2004(McGuigan, , 2010 and the managerialization of public sector organizations under the new mangerialist regime (or New Public Management) (Clarke, Gewirtz, & McLaughlin, 2000;Deem, Hillyard, & Reed, 2007;Newman, 2013), the museum has been redefined as an instrumentalizable service to the extent that it owes its existence to the tax-paying public of citizen-consumers (Gray, 2008(Gray, , 2011Levitt, 2008;Tlili, 2008;Tlili et al, 2007). In one sense, museum work can be seen as a public service fulfilling cultural, educational and civic functions for the public.…”

Section: Background: Museums and Professionalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

In Search of Museum Professional Knowledge Base: Mapping the professional knowledge debate onto museum work

Tlili

2015

Educational Philosophy and Theory

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Museum professionalism remains an unexplored area in museum studies, particularly with regard to what is arguably the core generic question of a sui generis professional knowledge base, and its necessary and sufficient conditions. The need to examine this question becomes all the more important with the increasing expansion of the museum's roles and functions. This paper starts by mapping out the policy and organizational context within which the roles of museums have expanded in the UK. It then situates the discussion of museum professional knowledge within a cross-disciplinary matrix bearing on the question of what is professional about occupations classified-or classifiable-as professions. Against the backdrop of the current organizational context of the museum as well as theories of professional knowledge, it highlights the ways in which museum work, more specifically museography, poses a distinctive set of questions compared to other 'professional' fields; the paper thus homes in on the question of what it is that constitutes the uniqueness of museum professional knowledge in relation to museographic practice and the type of professional knowledge and expertise that can sustain it and enact its creative and educational potentials and affordances.

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Intellectual and political landscape: the instrumentalism debate

Cited by 8 publications

References 4 publications

Scholarly Views on Theory: Its Nature, Practical Application, and Relation to World View in Business Research

Scholarly Views on Theory: Its Nature, Practical Application, and Relation to World View in Business Research

Managing performance in publicly funded museums in England: effects, resistances and revisions

In Search of Museum Professional Knowledge Base: Mapping the professional knowledge debate onto museum work

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