Download `Listening in` on Conversations in the Field

‘Museums, Social Capital, and
Everyday Life
Gaynor Bagnall
Why the interest in the ‘Social’
'increasing evidence shows that social
cohesion is critical for societies to prosper
economically and for development to be
sustainable…Social capital is not just the
sum of the institutions which underpin a
society – it is the glue that holds them
together' (The World Bank 1999)
The Policy Context: MLA
Generic Social Outcomes; The Context
• Awareness of social impact of museums
• Potential of museums to develop ‘social capital’
• Belief - cultural participation was linked to the development of
social capital
• New Labour/Gov’t policy about value of communitanarism
GSO framework about enabling Museums to
• ‘Deliver’ – to key agendas, to communities, to policy priorities
• ‘Evidence’ their contribution
• Measure Social Impact
• ‘Instrumental’ approach
• Reductionist approach
• Social Capital - ‘ a troubled concept’ (Adkins, 2005)
Social Capital: The ‘official version’
• Key indicators, social relations, formal and informal
social networks, group membership, trust,
reciprocity and civic engagement
• Relationships matter & social networks are a
valuable asset
• Interaction enables people to build communities, to
commit themselves to each other, and to knit the
social fabric.
• A sense of belonging, social networks,
relationships of trust and tolerance are seen as
beneficial
• Decline in Social Capital negative consequences
for society
Defining Social Capital:
Bourdieu & Putnam
Bourdieu (1983)
• Access to social networks and resources
• Related to Social class & to other capitals, cultural & economic –
unequal access to resources & inequalities of power
• SC a means to access and hold onto power - those in privileged
positions use social networks to maintain their position
Putnam (2000)
• Social networks & civic virtue
• Membership of Voluntary associations key
• SC a feature of communities
• Community connectedness makes an enormous difference to lives
• Different dimensions to SC – ‘bridging’ & ‘bonding’
Issues for Museums & Questions about Value – what types/forms of SC
are being generated - does this problematize simplistic measurement
of SC under ‘headings’ & implications of SC being related to
prod/reproduction of inequalities
Social Capital & NL Gov’t
Policy
• SC popular with NL fits with 3rd way of NLP
• Deficit model - Repairing & enhancing SC seen as a means to deal with
difficult social issues – SC a panacea
• Emphasis on Community – civic decline seen as key cause of political
& social ills (Giddens, 1998)
• Social involvement key to well-being of communities
BUT
• Communities presented as undifferentiated, with shared
understandings, tensions concealed (James & James, 2001)
• Social capital provides non-economic solutions to social problems economy is not presented as the cause of social inequalities
• The individual becomes responsible for their own inequalities
How does that fit with a Museum world where there are still patterns of
inequality in terms of visiting - that are linked to economic and cultural
differences & inequalities. Diverting attention away from economic
inequalities raises the issue as to who gains by the focus on social
outcomes & social capital.
Consumption, Culture & Performance
• Consumer society, where consumption shapes our identities
‘consumption now affects the ways in which people build up, and
maintain, a sense of who they are, and who they wish to be. It
has become entwined with the processes surrounding the
development of an identity’ (Chaney:1996, x)
And
• Performative society – social life dramatic, presentation of self,
play particular roles, but everyday life is a performance
‘So deeply infused into everyday life is performance that we are
unaware of it in ourselves or in others. Life is a constant
performance; we are audience and performer at the same
time; everybody is an audience all the time.’ (Abercrombie &
Longhurst, 1998:72-73, Audiences)
Both these process still framed by social factors such as class,
gender, ethnicity – museums site of consumption &
performativity
The Research: Globalization &
Belonging (2005)
• Research on 4 contrasting locations around
Manchester (182 in-depth interviews)
• Relationship between locale, lifestyles & identity
• Social & Cultural Practices in Context • Topics –neighbourhood & locality, cultural &
leisure interests, household relationships, work
and employment, and finally attitudes regarding
class, ethnicity, and other discrete topics
Elective Belonging
• Elective Belonging - a way of thinking about the attachment
people have to places where they have decided to live
• Belonging not linked to historical roots - rather something that
can be ‘achieved’
• Belonging is not to a fixed community – places seen as sites
for performing identities
• People locate themselves in places though parenting,
shopping, working, and engaging with cultural sites such as
museums
• Draw on their imaginary vision of place, a knowledge of the
cultural geography – cultural sites such as museums part of
this
• People concerned with Place as a marker
• Value of museums in enabling people to ‘achieve’ belonging
The Museum, Consumption,
Performance, Belonging & Everyday Life
• City is narrated as set of consumption spaces to be
viewed & lived – museums part of this
• Museums narrated as consumption spaces in which to
perform identity of parent – cultural capital?
• Museums narrated as spaces to perform belonging and
attachment to place – part of the cultural landscape –
part of what makes a place (Manchester) valued
• Museums place to perform identities of everyday life important to recognize flow of everyday life (parenting)
in cultural participation & engagement
• Value of museums lies in their ability to enable the
performance of identities and belonging
Conclusions
• GSO & instrumental approach problematic – no easy ‘value
free’ definitions of social capital
• Doesn’t mean Museums aren’t able to generate it but need
to be careful about what type of capital we are talking about
and the impact that might then have
• Society is increasingly informed by consumption and
performativity – how does that affect the value of museums
as places in which to consume & perform – but need to
consider how this framed by social factors such as class,
gender, ethnicity – museums role in ‘everyday life’
• Generally quantitative collection of data not nuanced
enough to capture the fullness of the ‘value’ of museums –
GSO model might serve interests of Gov’t & MLA - but
does it really serve the interests of museums and the
communities and audiences they serve