“Defensive instrumentalism” and the legacy of New Labour's cultural policies

Abstract

The paper identifies “defensive instrumentalism” as a main feature that has characterised New Labour's cultural policies, and which constitutes an important aspect of its legacy. Yet, resorting to instrumental arguments to defend the arts and to make a case for their usefulness is hardly an invention of New Labour. However, in the past, such defensive arguments were built into a more constructive and creative attempt to elaborate a coherent theory of art and an intellectually sophisticated view of the effects of the arts on individual and societies. What the paper argues, then, is that instrumentalism under New Labour has retained its longstanding defensive character, but was deprived of the attendant effort to elaborate a positive notion of cultural value.

Keywords:

• British cultural policy
• New Labour
• instrumentalism
• social impact

Notes

The focus on Western ideas is dictated purely by the article's intention of understanding Western, and more specifically, British developments in cultural policy making.

http://savethearts-uk.blogspot.com/ (accessed 3rd February 2011).

This was a Guardian's online feature: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2010/oct/13/frieze-art-fair-cuts (accessed 3rd February 2010).

See Vaizey (2009).