Section: Research Student Profiles

Jannis Johann

Name
Jannis Johann
Organisation
Social Policy, School of Social and Political Science
University of Edinburgh
Address
Chrystal Macmillan Building 15a George Square Edinburgh UK EH8 9LD
E-Mail
URL
http://www.socialpolicy.ed.ac.uk/student_profiles/jannis_johann
Jannis Johann

Qualifications

Magister Artium (MA) in Political Science (Major), Economics and Musicology (Minors), University of Göttingen, Germany

Working Title

Cultural policy as social policy? A study of state support for the arts in Scotland and North Rhine-Westphalia between 1980 and 2010 from a welfare perspective.

Supervisors

Jochen Clasen and Andy Aitchison

PhD Project

Scholars of cultural policy have suggested that similar trends have occurred throughout Western industrialised countries. These include the emergence of utilitarian cultural policies, decentralization and privatization. However, these developments, that might lead to cross-national convergence of cultural policy, have been hardly investigated systematically so far. Particularly testing the claim of utilitarian cultural policies, here: cultural policy as social policy, is of relevance not only for cultural policy research but for social policy analysts alike.

Against this background my project gathers evidence for convergence of Scotland/United Kingdom and North Rhine-Westphalia/Germany as two cases which have been described as representing to distinct models of public arts support. Scotland within the United Kingdom represents the arts council model in a fairly unitary, adversarial political system characterised by majoritarian government. Rooted in a liberal tradition, the arts council model emphasizes the independence of arts funding from government. North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany, on the other hand, represents the government ministry model in a federal, consociational political system characterized by coalition government. The culture ministry model allows government bureaucrats to indulge in their own artistic tastes within the limits set by parliament. The institutional differences between both countries seem to prevent utilitarian cultural policies, at least in the arts council model, since government simply lacks the power to enforce such policies against the will of the arts council. This apparent paradox is at the heart of my dissertation project. My working hypothesis is that an arts funding system based on the arts council model converges towards the culture ministry model, at least in the course of introducing socially oriented cultural policies.

Focusing on the Scottish Arts Council and the Culture Ministry of North Rhine-Westphalia the study traces developments from the early 1980s until 2010 drawing on a range of policy documents such as reports, records of parliamentary debates, spending plans, newspaper articles as well as academic and policy expert interviews. Both cases are analysed as to whether the institutional setting, policy goals, policy tools and policy effort have shifted over time and eventually converged. Finally, the project answers the question whether and to which degree the two countries pursue cultural policies as social policy.

I was employed on the project Sustainable Welfare and Sustainable Growth - Towards a New Social Settlement in Germany and the United Kingdom? funded by the Anglo-German Foundation and RECWOWE funded by the European Commission.

Publications

Reföderalisierung vs. Zentralisierung: Die Debatte um den Kulturföderalismus, in: Berliner Debatte Initial 16 (1), 2005. (Re-federalization vs. Centralisation: The Debate about Culture Federalism)

Research Group Membership

  • State, Governance and Welfare
  • Public Policy

Teaching Experience

  • European Social Policy (UG level)
  • Einführung in die Sozialpolitik (Introduction to Social Policy) (UG level)

Awards

Wolfgang Enke Award 2006 of the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Göttingen, for the best thesis on social policy. Awarded for the thesis Elitendifferenzierung? Die Karrieren deutscher Gewerkschaftsvorstände in der Nachkriegszeit (Differentiation of elites? The careers of board members of German trade unions after the Second World War)


 

This page was published on 11 January 2012


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