The issue of identity has become increasingly important in the 21't century. Facing the dilemma of being tom between globalisation and indigenisation, our sense of identity is constantly changing and in turmoil. This dissertation engages with several questions: How does our sense of belonging come about? In what ways and to what extent can the state construct culture, regulate our behaviour, and formulate a sense of belonging through cultural policy? And, why cultural policy might fail? Because the politics of cultural policy has either been overlooked or considered only in general terms without thorough examination on a long-term basis, this thesis examinest he relationshipb etweenc ulturalp olicy and culturali dentityb y exploring the case of post-war Taiwan. The development and dramatic change of cultural identity in post-war Taiwan provides a good testing ground to examine the relationship between cultural policy and identity construction, especially during the volatile identity crisis in the 1990s. There are two parts in this dissertation. Part I focuses on textual research of a half-century of Taiwanese cultural policy, alongside the island's historical development; Part 11 records and analyses the fieldwork I carried out on Taiwanese theatre to substantiate the textual analysis in Part 1. This thesis deals with issues in two areas that no other research has explored before and tries to indicate the universal implications of the analysis of Taiwanese identity construction and cultural policy. Firstly, through the analysis of the politics of culture in Taiwan, this research demonstrates how a stable and deeply rooted China-centric identity was overturned within only two years. Furthermore, it highlights the politics of culture by displaying how an authoritarian regime was challenged, and how cultural hegemony could be won in order to grasp political power. Secondly, the case study provides evidence manifesting the changing nature of contemporary cultural policy, and its hidden politics. Under the name of 'supporting the arts', the state uses cultural policy to maintain its cultural hegemony. Although Taiwan has carried out a process of democratisation since the 1980s, the state has not loosened its control on culture, but has rather changed its strategy of how to control. A new alliance between regulation and market forces has formed, and becomes the nexus of modem cultural policy.

The aim of this research project is to analyse forms of remembrance and memory of the Shoah in Germany in its and their political and cultural formations. The underlying question driving the research project is Adorno's famous essay 'What does it mean: coming-to-terms with the past?'. The thesis deals with historical-philosophical reflections and the historical-literary perspective on the complex process of remembering the Shoah in Germany and its monumental manifestations in the form of the planned Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. The research project sets out to critique and analyse a body of artistic, literary and philosophical works that engage with the problematics of remembering and re-presenting the Shoah. It explores these critical questions against the backdrop of the changed social and historical conditions of the reunited Germany and makes reference to the debates of the 1990s, the planned Holocaust Memorial in Berlin and the wider context of post-Holocaust discourse. The first chapter delivers an exegetical reading of Walter Benjamin's texts in order to open up new interpretative perspectives for an understanding of the issues at stake. Benjamin's notions of 'history' and 'memory' serve as ideas for a comparative analysis of the problematics of memory in the country of the perpetrators and for the possibilities of future memory. The second chapter discusses the decision-making process for a national, central 'Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe' in Berlin; it explores the winning designs of the competition and their respective implications on what constitutes the memory of the Shoah in Germany. The decision for a central memorial and the implications of the chosen design are measured against the backdrop of the debates of the 1990s and the politics of a re-united Germany. The third chapter discusses the different attempts of literary and (historical-)philosophical reflection on the occurrence of the Shoah in the writings of Thomas Mann, Hannah Arendt, Karl Jaspers and Alexander and Margarete Mitscherlich. The chapter questions the political positioning and action of the author Martin Walser, as a representative of the generation of perpetrators, to the process of working-through and coming-to-terms. It critically examines Walser's speech of October 1998 and places the speech in the historical context of coming-to-terms in post-war Germany. The thesis demonstrates that the choice of design. for the planned Holocaust Memorial correlates with the status of politics in the united Germany. It is argued here that the focus on what it is that needs to be worked through and come to terms with, has shifted during the post-Holocaust discourse. The thesis demonstrates that the questions at stake in the most recent debates are the workings-through of a younger generation that confronts part of a horrifying family history. The thesis argues for the necessity of memory and remembrance in the future.

This research attempts to identify patterns of successful independent practice among contemporary visual arts practitioners for the purpose of increasing understanding of the structures of and activity within the visual arts in England. The intention is to draw conclusions regarding how such practice can be facilitated and supported. It looks at a particular kind of practice in the area of design craft, and at the organisations charged with the responsibility for state provision, setting this critique in a context of a historical and social perspective. Much of recent conventional practice in the visual arts is considered to have a narrow view of what constitutes acceptable practice and is based on the gallery-based fine arts model. This model is a dubious base line from which to encourage a healthy range of independentpractice, and is of little use to the practitioners in this study, and others of similar intent. The practitioners encountered in this research might beconsidered applied artists, as they have a need to engage with a public during the processes of conception, creation and selling of their work. The patterns have been documented with the assistance of concepts regarding small business, particularly a subsector called micro business. Micro business has recently been identified to describe a pattern of activity which is not conducted for profit or with goals of expansion. The motivation behind micro business is to maintain self determination.

Plays representing some aspect of the Holocaust produced in both the commercial and subsidised sectors of the London theatre throughout the Cold War period variously but consistently sought to evade, diminish or inappropriately qualify the cardinal fact that, in the formulation which was the Nazi's own, 'the Final Solution was that 'of the Jewish question in Europe'. Such dramatic distortions hinder perceptions of the identity and fate of the chief victims of the Holocaust. Playwrights', directors', managements', and to a marginally lesser degree, critics' failure to question or challenge these tendencies results not so much in the explicitly stated exoneration of those responsible for the Nazi genocide as the erasure or attenuation of both German guilt and Jewish suffering through dramatic speculation upon the universal human propensity to evil. In consequence the suggestion is made of Jewish agency in, and culpability for, their own fate during the Holocaust. At their most extreme these dramatic tendencies resort to the recurrent themes of anti-Semitic discourse. The ubiquitous dramatic strategies and tropes employed in the productions discussed, rather than succeed in their attempt to find and represent meaning in the respective episodes and events of the Nazi genocide dramatised, frequently re-present this elimination through the evasion, attenuation or erasure, of Jewish fate. The productions register the failure of dramatic art to find equitable metaphor and adequate representational means to provoke reflection of a kind which might transcend the meaningless facticity of mass murder and the impulse to annihilation, and are drawn into those same dynamics of annihilation, evidenced by the erasure of Jewish identity and fate. This phenomenon remains largely, but not entirely, unremarked in the immediate critical response of the British press, but almost wholly neglected in later commentary due to an 'absence of memoy: the lack of a specifically British critical discourse on dramatic representation and the Holocaust.

This thesis is an examination of the complex relationship between a broadly defined art market and the British State. it is an examination of the visual arts economy within a British market economy. It demonstrates the state's failure to support and improve this economy even as it declares such a commitment. For the sake of the visual arts and the national economy, an alternative to the Orthodoxy of the State is argued and mechanism for its achievement proposed. This has required me to to reveal and question some firmly held attitudes and beliefs about art, artists, connoisseurs and public good. Although they constitute a comfortable notion of patronage for a minority, these contemporary notions of art, artist and connoisseur contribute to a decidedly uncomfortable economy for the majority.

With specific reference to the cultural policy set out by New Labour, this research explores the individual and social function of the arts and the extent to which they are agents of inclusion. The arts, an important aspect even driver of culture, can be perceived as exclusive with taste reflecting socio-economic concerns which contradicts this function. Such a paradox requires an investigation into the complex and sometimes contradictory relationship between cultural and social inclusion and exclusion, as well as the methods used of evaluating impact. The thesis is divided into four sections. Part One sets out definitions of social exclusion and relevant government cultural policy. Part Two investigates valuation methodology and techniques of evaluating the social impact of the arts programmes in particular. This includes an analysis of relevant reports. Part Three then investigates cultural exclusion. A trilateral approach is taken that assets at, cultural democracy and popular culture. Part Four relates specifically to causal factors of inclusion and how the arts enable emancipation, empowerment and satisfy personal need. It also explores the wider social function and ideal location of the arts, especially with regards to a leisure framework. Throughout, the research questions the extent to which the social role of the arts and policy is one of accommodation or more concerned with reflecting individual needs and a wider counterculture. It concludes that an engaged freedom is the more natural agenda of the arts, which contrasts with an instrumental New Labour government policy that treats social inclusion as primarily related to employment and training issues in order to increase individual social capital.

This study gives an account of audience research undertaken between 1981 and 1986 at a sample of London theatres, and covering a wide range of productions, with the aim of establishing a profile of the West End theatre audience. Prior to this research, audience surveys in the U.K. had take place primarily outside London, or had been limited to one or two theatres. The study details the development of a research methodology for use in a large scale audience research project covering a variety of venues. The process by which techniques for audience sampling, questionnaire design and layout, survey method, and analysis of results were decided on is documented. The process by which an aggregated analysis of the West End audience as a whole was prepared from the sampled research findings is also described. Analysis of the survey findings begins with an examination of the effects of three variables on audience profiles; time of year, day of the week and type of production. An account is then given of the West End theatre audience overall. Demographic profiles, theatre-going behaviour, press and publicity use, and attractions and deterrents of London theatres are documented and analysed for the audience overall. Variations in the fore-going aspects of audience profiles and behaviour are also documented and analysed for each of the major demographic groups. As a preliminary to a proposed future study on the economic impact of the West End theatres on the local economy, an account is given of audience spending and of its value to local businesses. The results of the study indicate that theatre-going behaviour may be largely determined by social factors, and that the research therefore has a predictive value. The implications of this finding for marketing the theatre and for cultural policy-making are examined in the conclusions.

The aim of the study was to consider whether opera performances could exert an influence such that audiences travel and stay away from home overnight in order to experience those performances. In particular, it was to be considered whether such visits were undertaken as a holiday and whether opera was the sole or most important reason for that holiday. Additionally, an opera-producing organisation (Buxton Arts Festival) was to be studied in order to assess its recognition of the tourism connection and any influence of that upon the organisation. It was concluded, from an examination and synthesis of existing work, that there were grounds for believing that some of those in an opera audience could be tourists and holiday tourists for whom opera dominated as the reason for the tourist visit. A consideration of Buxton, the geographical location of the opera performances, confirmed its partial function as a tourist resort. Concern about the present and future nature of that function was identified. The Festival company was studied through a combination of observation, examination of internal papers and discussions. It was concluded that the company had acknowledged a need for and/or a desire to attract audiences from a widespread area. This tourism dimension did not dominate policy nor influence the product. Audiences at Festival operas were surveyed directly and by post. The surveys showed that there were tourists in the audiences and also those who classified their tourist visit as a holiday. For both holiday and non-holiday tourists itwas concluded that the operas had been the most important factors influencing the decision to visit. Despite some differences between holiday and non-holiday tourists, the factors causing the holiday/non-holiday distinction remained unclear. The distinction between the tourist and non-tourist was largely, though not necessarily, one of distance from Buxton.

This thesis is concerned with the sensitivity of Total Factor Productivity (fFP) estimates in UK manufacturing industries to the use of alternative output concepts -gross output vs. value added- and estimation methods -growth accounting vs. econometrics. The departure point is that differences in methods and assumptions can lead to very different TFP growth estimates. The interpretation of these estimates can be problematic when they reflect factors beyond the theoretical concept of TFP. The central goal of this thesis is to evaluate whether and to what extent these factors have an impact on the measurement of TFP growth, on the estimation of any relationship between TFP and Research and Development (R&D) investment and, finally, on the measurement of the UK manufacturing productivity gap differential. The empirical results suggest that: First, TFP growth estimates in UK manufacturing are sensitive to both the output concept used and the assumptions underlying the method used to estimate them. It was found when tested for that the assumptions of perfect competition and instantaneous adjustment, which underlie the growth accounting framework, are not valid. Adjusting for the measurement bias associated with the presence of these factors, it is found that the recovery experienced in the 1980s in UK manufacturing productivity growth rates was not as spectacular as implied by the traditional growth accounting approach. Second, adjusting for measurement bias does not affect markedly the results found in related studies with respect to the relationship between TFP and R&D efforts. The results suggest that R&D investment from the industry itself and from other national industries has a positive impact on the industry's productivity but there is no gain from R&D investment undertaken abroad. Third, the results indicate that the bias in traditional TFP estimates does not impact greatly on the British productivity gap at the aggregate manufacturing level but does so at a more dis aggregated level. Finally, despite the concerns about measurement bias, the results show that the productivity gap still remains significant and the productivity of UK manufacturing still trails behind that achieved in the US, France and Germany, regardless of the sector.

While the literature provides numerous and often competing rationales for the introduction of employee ownership and control, a common theme is one of greater organisational harmony, brought about through the establishment of common worker and management goals. However, evidence suggests that this harmonisation assumption is over simplistic and that conflict is apparent in employee owned and controlled organisations. This contradictory evidence arises since the harmonisation thesis ignores both the wider social and economic context within which organisations are situated, and also the social generation of conflict even once the unequal distribution of ownership and control is removed. The impact of social networks on decision-making, control and conflict within employee owned and controlled firms is therefore hypothesised to be more significant than in conventionally organised enterprises. The conceptual framework on which this study is based contends that identities at work are formed by and embedded within social network relations. Therefore, a contextualised social network methodology is applied to the study of identity alteration processes in employee owned and controlled organisations. In order to ensure access to those aspects of network relations that exist beyond the surface observable event, a qualitative participative method was adopted. In case study one, NurseryCo - a small childcare ESOP conversion - it was found that, while the function of the ESOP was presented as a mechanism to secure the harmonisation of working relations, employee ownership and control itself gave rise to a number of conflicts. In the second case study, BusCo - a large bus transport ESOP conversion - the issues of harmonisation and conflict are dealt with through the examination of the collective identity transformations of the management and union collective bargaining groups.