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Dear colleagues:
It is my pleasure to invite you to the viva/oral examination/defence of my PhD Thesis -after 4 years of hard work- to obtain the title of PhD in Culture and Heritage Management, with European Mention, by the University of Barcelona.
The title of my PhD Thesis is:
“The arts councils and the arm’s length principle in cultural policy at a subnational level: A comparative study between Catalonia (Spain), Jalisco (Mexico) and Scotland (UK).”
I will be honoured to have as examiners:
ˇ Dr. Joan Subirats, director of the University Institute of Political Science, Autonomous University of Barcelona.
ˇ Dr. Emmanuel Négrier, director of the National Centre of Scientific Research, University of Montpellier, France.
ˇ Dr. Arturo Rodríguez Morató, coordinator of the PhD in Sociology, University of Barcelona.
Here is the abstract:
Comparative research on the arts councils of three sub-national regions from different countries, Catalonia (Spain), Jalisco (Mexico) and Scotland (United Kingdom), is carried out to examine the application of the arm's length principle, its performance, its relation to the cultural and politic context and its inclusion in institutional systems other than the Anglo-Saxon system. With a qualitative methodology and case study strategy, fieldwork is performed in each place through interviews, observations and documentary work, applying the joint canon of agreement and difference for analysis. The conclusion reached is that an arts council is not necessarily a body under the arm's length principle and the influence that stakeholders seek to exert through their various resources is reflected upon. The relationship between arts councils and their context shows the dialectics between legitimacy/efficiency, transparency/clientelism and differentiation/standardisation, and the tensions between the centre/periphery. This principle is used from politics as a rhetorical argument, while the aim is to have more control over decisions, even though this increases the level of accountability. The cultural sector is unaware that the principle also seeks to keep its distance from it to avoid clientelism. There is an evident mimicry, copying foreign models without adapting them sufficiently to the context and without delving more deeply into external experiences and theoretical reflections, which reveals some mistakes of the process.
Keywords: cultural policy, arts councils, arm’s length principle, subnational level, comparative study.
You are cordially invited:
Friday, 20th January, 2012 - 11:30 hrs.
University of Barcelona
Faculty of Economics and Business
c/Coronel Valenzuela, 1-11
Barcelona, Spain
It will be a pleasure to share with you this special moment. I also take the chance to thank you all for your support.
With my best regards,
Marco Antonio Chavez-Aguayo
(00 34) 617 979 996
LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/marcochavez
Connect CP profile:
http://www.connectcp.org/marcochavez
Interview in Lab for Culture:
http://www.labforculture.org/en/groups/open/young-researchers-forum/voices-and-viewpoints/92036