Cultural discourses and practices of institutionalised diversity in the UK film sector: ‘Just get something black made’

an article by Clive James Nwonka (London School of Economics and Political Science, UK) and Sarita Malik (Brunel University London, UK) published in The Sociological Review Volume 66 Issue 6 (November 2018)

Abstract

‘Diversity’ is an evolving dimension of discursive debates within publicly funded parts of the UK media.

This article considers how representations of racial diversity in cinema were articulated in a particular moment in recent history. It traces the relationship between the broader New Labour neoliberal agenda of the late 1990s and the UK Film Council’s (UKFC) New Cinema Fund, the key funding mechanism for supporting black British cinema at the time.

The authors suggest that the New Cinema Fund’s ‘institutional diversity’ agenda represented a symbolic effort by both the UKFC and UK public service broadcasters to redevelop black British film vis-a-vis a plethora of cultural imperatives oriented around the notion of ‘social inclusion’. The nature of this intervention, it is argued, was strongly influenced by the 1999 Macpherson Report, which identified ‘institutional racism’ within the fabric of the UK’s organisations.

The article examines how such an ‘institutional diversity’ agenda emerged within the production context of a BBC Film/UKFC production, Bullet Boy (2005), thus generating a rearticulated black British cinema that was deeply imbricated in the highly politicised contexts outlined.

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Developments in UK executive agencies: Re-examining the ‘disaggregation–reaggregation’ thesis

an article by Thomas Elston (University of Nottingham, UK) published in Public Policy and Administration Volume 28 Number 1 (January 2013)

Abstract

Executive agencies remain key players in UK government. However, reflecting their declining political profile, little research has emerged on the longer term evolution of this key new public management (NPM) infrastructure.

Although widely cited, the ‘disaggregation–reaggregation’ thesis – which posits that a significant reversal has taken place, following the extensive agencification of the 1990s – has received little systematic evaluation. As political interest in the agency model reawakens under the Coalition Government, it is necessary to understand how the agency landscape has evolved while outside of the limelight.

Accordingly, this article examines developments across 1988–2010 along two dimensions: ‘structural’, relating to organisational boundaries; and ‘functional’, relating to the department–agency task division. Viewed within this structural–functional framework, considerable merit is found in the disaggregation–reaggregation thesis, although not entirely in the terms in which it has come to be accepted.

The limited extent of formal ‘de-agencification’, particularly, challenges existing reports of the expansion and decline of agencies, and raises important issues for the future research agenda.

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