The language of business and the business of language: Exploring hegemonic linguistic performativity in the UK museum sector

Jeremy Aroles,John Hassard,Paula Hyde

doi:10.1177/13505084211057258

Jeremy Aroles, John Hassard + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/13505084211057258

Copy DOI

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 (B&M language) increasingly frames how organisations of the cultural sector are described, this paper defines the main discursive practices motivating this performative repositioning. Drawing theoretically from the concept of performativity, and building empirically on in-depth interviews with senior staff across the UK museum sector, we argue that the incursion of B&M language has reshaped the ‘reality’ of the sector by materialising new relations. Signally, we advance a concept of performative hegemonic language to describe a range of manifestations of linguistic re-labelling in the world of the museum. Our paper illustrates what happens when an organisation starts to classify activities through B&M language, considering the implications of framing this etymology as transcendent to its cultural counterpart. Relabelling, we contend, re-orients meaning, and this translates into the ascent of what we call the ‘neoliberal museum’. Overall, our paper unpacks the linguistic-material processes underpinning the ideological transformations affecting the cultural sector.

Highlights

Over the last 20 years, the UK public sector has undergone a wide array of changes that have affected the provision of public services (Bach, 2016; Currie et al, 2011; Hyde et al, 2016; Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2011)
In the context of the language of business and management dominating how the cultural sector is debated in public arenas, this paper explores discursive practices lying at the heart of the repositioning and reshaping of museums
B&M language has become an integral part of the life of UK museums

Summary

Introduction

Over the last 20 years, the UK public sector has undergone a wide array of changes that have affected the provision of public services (Bach, 2016; Currie et al, 2011; Hyde et al, 2016; Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2011). In their study of the strategy behind the ‘Sydney 2030’ sustainability plan, Kornberger and Clegg (2011: 13, emphasis in original) argue that ‘the concept of performativity directs our attention to the circumstance that strategizing is an activity that does something’ Aligned with this literature, our paper sets out to explore the ‘performing of organizations’, or how organisations are constituted into being linguistically (see Gond et al, 2016). In the process it attends principally to Gond et al.’s (2016: 458) call to explore the ‘radical heuristic potential of performativity for theory-building’ in organisation studies

Methodology

Findings

Discussion and conclusions