Abstract

Language and power are central to an understanding of control. This paper uses the work of Pierre Bourdieu to argue that an enriched view of power, in the form of symbolic violence, is central. We examine the pedagogical function business plans played in the provincial museums and cultural heritage sites of Alberta, Canada. The struggle to name and legitimate practices occurs in the business planning process, excluding some knowledges and practices and teaching and utilizing other knowledges and ways of viewing the organization. We show that control involves both redirecting work and changing the identity of producers, in particular, how they understand their work through the construction of markets, consumers, and products. This process works by changing the capital, in its multiple forms – symbolic, cultural, political and economic – in an organizational and institutional field.

Editors' introduction

This paper is remarkable for several features. Above all, it surprises by revealing that the apparently mundane process of business planning in museums involves in fact a bitterly contested struggle for control, with considerable cultural significance. It makes a clear micro–macro link, connecting wider social processes of commercialization in the public sector to the detailed work of museum curators. The researchers demonstrate reflexivity about their role, almost to the point of self-consciousness. Finally, the paper introduces the social theory of Pierre Bourdieu to a new audience, in a manner that is clearly additive to other theoretical perspectives. On the other hand, as we discuss in the final commentary, opportunities for comparative analysis and close reporting of particular activities are not fully explored.