License to judge: fleshing out expertise in cultural policy

Strings Attached to Arts Funding: Panel Assessments of Theater Organizations through the Lens of Agency Theory

“…A limitation of this study may be that my analysis provides just a snapshot of arts funding decisions in a given context and time. Other recent studies endorse that panels' (positive) biases and prejudices are not exceptional (Lewandowska 2017) and that previous merits matter a lot (Zan et al 2012). The fact that the findings are similar for two distinct settings increases their external validity and suggests that the phenomenon may apply elsewhere as well.…”

“…Panels often hold the authority to decide on subsidy allocation. Lewandowska (2017) argues that expertise has been installed at the heart of arts policy because of the increased pressures on measurement by society, and that such expert power may have deep implications on the nature of the arts' provision. The decisions from these third parties can influence the exchanges in the arts in different ways, because they can be variously reliable, contingent upon these assessors' (past) involvement in the arts (Trimarchi 2003).…”

“…The decisions from these third parties can influence the exchanges in the arts in different ways, because they can be variously reliable, contingent upon these assessors' (past) involvement in the arts (Trimarchi 2003). The efficacy of third-party assessment systems has been questioned, as they embroil human behavior that could be tainted by subjective biases, professional prejudices, self-interest, resistance to change, and ideology (Bertelli et al 2014;Jancovich 2017;Lewandowska 2017). Worst-case scenario, "given the relevance of their evaluations for the determination of the economic value of art products, collusion between agents and critics/experts can occur, strengthening agents' contractual power against principals, and introducing a further bias in the outcome of such complex exchanges" (Trimarchi 2003, 375).…”

“…If this happens, arts funding can emanate "as an ideological apparatus, with a cultural policy that serves elite groups in articulating and guaranteeing their privileged position in society" (Feder and Katz-Gerro 2012, 374;Bourdieu 1984). A dominant role for an elite of experts in arts funding can lead to a substantial detachment of public policy from the preferences of a community (Mazza 2003;Lewandowska 2017). As such, arts policy may yield fertile grounds for stark tensions between interests that are more artistic vis-a-vis those that are more social, while at the same time it seeks to resolve them.…”

Evaluation in Interaction: The Pragmatic Approach to Artistic Judgement

“…(Karpik 2010) -evaluation has been associated with the work of critics, experts, or connoisseurs, i.e. people who possess the "license to judge" (Lewandowska 2019) and evaluate the work's quality, and as such has stood prominently within the sociology of culture and the arts.…”