The Business of Language & the Language of Business: Neoliberal Performativity & Hegemonic Discourse

Abstract

Austerity measures and neoliberal policies have deeply affected the UK cultural sector. In particular they have been central to cementing the idea that contemporary cultural institutions should henceforth be regarded as commercial operations. As the language of business and management increasingly frames how organizations of the cultural sector are described, this paper seeks to define the main discursive practices motivating this performative repositioning. Drawing theoretically from J. L. Austin’s (1962) landmark philosophical work on performativity, and building empirically on in-depth interviews with senior staff across the UK museum sector, we argue that the incursion of business language has served to reshape the ‘reality’ of the sector. This has been achieved, primarily, by materialising what we term conceptually a new hegemonic performative discourse – one based on notions of monetisation, productivity and rebranding. In order to understand current and possibly future dilemmas facing the management and organization of museums, we assess the consequences of this new commercial discourse as it becomes framed as strategically superior to that of its historic conservational and educational counterpart.