The governmentality and accountability of UK national museums and art galleries

Abstract

This study furthers our understanding of the role of governmentality mechanisms in relation to other-forming and self-forming accounts of art organisations, by using empirical data collected from interviews with senior managers of UK national museums and art galleries (MAGs) and from secondary published sources. The findings highlight how governmentality mechanisms had power-effects through the creation of knowledge about MAGs and the resistance strategies of MAGs. Whilst the governmentality mechanisms were expected to ensure the automatic functioning of disciplinary power, in some instances the government directly intervened to override decisions taken by senior managers when these conflicted with political imperatives.

Measuring museum sustainability within the framework of institutional theory: A dictionary‐based content analysis of French and British National Museums' annual reports

“…During the same period, studies on museum reporting practices, performance, and accountability measurement also developed, mainly addressing the Anglosphere countries, namely the UK (Abdullah & Khadaroo, 2017;Jackson, 1991;Morse, 2018), the USA (Christensen & Mohr, 2003), Australia (Carnegie & Wolnizer, 1996;Rentschler & Potter, 1996;Wickham & Lehman, 2015), and New Zealand (Thompson, 2001;Wei et al, 2008). Investigating the European context, scholars have analyzed the cases of Italy (Bambagiotti-Alberti et al, 2016;Esposito et al, 2023;Esposito & Ricci, 2021;Paternostro & Ruisi, 2017;Pignataro, 2002), Austria (Gstraunthaler &Piber, 2007), andPortugal (da Silva Menezes et al, 2009).…”

The influence of governance on the implementation of Public-Private Partnerships in the United Kingdom and China: A systematic comparison

“…In another study, the climate-development nexus was discussed from governmentality perspectives, through the fields of visibility, technicality, knowledge, and form of identity. A similar study concerning the management of art organisations selected institutions, considered processes, analyses, calculations, and tactics, as propositions of governmentality (Abdullah and Khadaroo, 2017).…”

The Whole Lifecycle Management Efficiency of the Public Sector in PPP Infrastructure Projects

“…Power is effective when executed subtly in organizational hierarchies with the input of knowledge [36], and those being governed should be framed in enclosure in order to be assigned responsibilities, and evaluated for performance [39]. Enclosure specifies the boundary of the organization and enables the institutionalization, such as calculation, rules, and regulations of governmentality [40,41]. Rationality indicates the method of reasoning, calculating, and responding to a systematic problem, which requires utilizing certain bodies of knowledge and expertise [42].…”

“…When applied in the analysis of the governance of organizations, the most commonly adopted analytical dimensions have included knowledge [46][47][48], instrument and techniques [46,49,50], process [51], and rationality [38,52]. For instance, Abdullah and Khadaroo [40] discussed the governmentality of a museum from institutions, processes, analyses, calculations, and tactics to understand the way a body of knowledge exerted power for subjectivation and objectivation of the institute. In a study concerning project governance, Müller, et al [45] selected three aspects, namely, organizational values, process, and project wellbeing, which represented the preference of governors for managing projects, to measure governmentality.…”