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The thesis addresses the extent to which the normative conceptualisation of cultural policy under New Labour’s social value agenda provides an adequate framework to understand the practices and experiences of contemporary visual arts institutions in London, in the period 1997-2010. By substantiating the discursive community of contemporary art and approaching the study of governance through the lens of cultural policy and contemporary art theory, the thesis establishes that in the dominant critical position, the interpretation of governmentality that is applied to the analysis of cultural policy is largely structural. The thesis identifies a gap in the literature taking account of the perspective and role of the skilled cultural actor in governance and capturing the nuance and variety of experiences across sectors and institutions. Using three substantive case studies, the thesis sets out to provide a focused and in-depth understanding of the contemporary visual arts institution’s experience of governance under New Labour’s social value agenda. It uses a combination of research methods, including policy review, quantitative data analysis and interviews with skilled cultural actors. Findings about informal, micro-level processes, behaviours and attitudes within the institution show that the meaning of social value as a governing principle was a highly situated concept, constructed through the input of multiple discourses. The findings show that there were tensions to resolve at the interface of practice and policy that had been previously overlooked by researchers, and skilled cultural actors played an important, agentic role in decision making, meaning-making and governance. The findings further demonstrate that the experience of governance under New Labour’s social value agenda was more nuanced and varied than is visible in most normative critiques. The thesis’ findings support the use of governmentality as an analytic lens for reading cultural policy under New Labour, but with caveats. The findings demonstrate the need for cultural policy studies to understand more about the critical debates informing practice, and to pay more attention to the life of policy as it moves beyond rhetoric. The thesis’ approach shows the benefit of drawing a specific disciplinary perspective into the analytic framework.

Severe declines in biodiversity have been attributed to anthropogenic changes in the composition and structure of our landscapes. Predicting the impact of landscape change on biodiversity is essential to halt further declines. In this thesis butterflies were used as indicators of biodiversity, and spatial assessments of butterflies were summarised at 1 km scale across Warwickshire to assess whether landscape characteristics can be used as surrogate measures of butterfly distribution and community measurements. When determining the optimal scale (grain size) for capturing landscape patterns, a grain size of 25 m was found most appropriate for maximising landscape discrimination and detecting landscape patterns which occur within the perceptual range of butterfly species. Utilising a grain size of 25 m landscape metrics measuring the composition, connectivity and structure of the 1 km landscapes, were extracted from the Land Cover Map 2000 (LCM) and the Warwickshire Phase 1 Habitat map (PH1). Logistic regression analysis based on landscape metrics created predictive models of butterfly distribution for all species and species grouped by their ecological attributes (EAGs). Model performance was improved when the landscape metrics were considered in a combined landscape model, and different combinations of landscape parameters were important for the EAGs. Models derived from the PH1 were most accurate in predicting observed presence-absence and were successfully transferred when tested using temporally independent data. The models were also successfully transferred to collected butterfly data which was spatially and temporally independent. This data was also collected alongside information on the local habitat such as vegetation composition. Probability of butterfly occurrence derived from the presence-absence models was successfully related to butterfly community characteristics and measures of local habitat quality. To conclude developed models provide indications of habitat suitability, which together with successful transfer demonstrates their potential for identifying biodiversity hotspots and facilitating targeted conservation efforts.

Some scholars believe district offices are primarily a compliance-driven, bureaucratic hindrance to transformational change. Other scholars believe that districts can play a key role in school and student success, but exactly what this role looks like remains very much in question. Particularly in large, urban districts, the focus seems to be more on policy and procedure than achieving interconnectivity among and connection with each one of its schools, its staff, and students. The business sector, on the other hand, has long recognized that knowing and satisfying customer/client needs is a key component of success. To improve teacher perceptions, some districts have begun to initiate service culture programs. Although research exploring the business sector finds that service culture enhanced the quality of service to customers, there is limited research on the effects of service culture in the education sector. Many principals and teachers in a focal urban, Midwestern district, report a disconnect between school sites and district office personnel resulting in a perception among school site staff that district personnel do not care. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the design, success measures, and preliminary outcomes related to the implementation of a service culture program in this school district. The primary research question asks, “Did perceptions of service culture among staff change after the implementation of the district’s service culture initiative?” The service culture evaluation design was quantitative. Surveys and sign-in logs were used to measure change in service culture, trust, quality of service, and volunteer participation over time, and were measured prior to the intervention and after the intervention had been in operation for over a year. The researcher found that service culture and trust both declined over the study period, with trust declining more sharply. However, perceptions of service quality and volunteer participation, two other important intervention outcomes, grew over the study period.