Policy change as institutional work

Abstract

Purpose: Policy change is frequently framed as resulting from governmental strategy based on explicit preferences, rational decision-making and consecutive and aligned implementation. This article instead explores the theoretical perspective of institutional work as an alternative approach to understanding policy change, and investigates the construction of resources needed to perform such work.Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on a case study of the process wherein the idea of cultural and creative industries was introduced into Lithuanian cultural policy. The main data generating methods are document studies and qualitative interviews. Findings:The analysis demonstrates the ways in which the resources needed to perform institutional work are created through the enactment of practice, and through the application of resourcing techniques. Three such techniques are identified in the empirical material: the application of experiences from several fields of practice, the elicitation of external support, and the borrowing of legitimacy. Originality/value:The study offers an alternative approach to studies of policy change by demonstrating the value of institutional work in such change. Further, it contributes to the literature on institutional work by highlighting how instances of such work, drawing on a distributed agency, interlink and connect to each other in a process to produce policy change. Finally, it proposes three interrelated resourcing techniques underlying institutional work.

Conceptual Approach to Managing the Development of Creative Industries in Second-Tier Industrial Cities

“…These reforms aimed to liberate culture from state subsidies and stimulate the post-industrial economy as creativity was recognized as a source of innovation, entrepreneurship, and knowledge capitalization (Wyatt & Trevena, 2020). However, in the realm of policy, creative industries represent a radical departure from traditional justifications of state cultural policy as this concept introduces alternative motives for «cultural self-expression and potentially new goals of cultural policy: profit and economic growth» (Svensson et al, 2017). The implementation of programs and other initiatives aimed at the development and support of creative industries has led to a significant change in approaches to public administration.…”