This introduction contextualises the key themes explored in this edited collection—participation, values and governance—against the backdrop of current academic debates on cultural policy. We flesh out the broader methodological and theoretical standpoints from which the collection originates, expounding the contribution that a historical perspective can offer to understanding contemporary debates on politics and policy. This collection of essays originates from a ‘package’ of work on ‘Histories’ in a large funded project on ‘Understanding Everyday Participation – Articulating Cultural Values’ (UEP).¹ As part of the broader objectives of the UEP project, this collection of essays proposes a radical re-evaluation of the relationship between participation and cultural value. The essays collected in this volume represent the project team’s contribution to the development of an in-depth historical understanding of the development of definitions, assumptions and beliefs around the nature and value of cultural participation, its place in contemporary cultural governance and exploitation in local socio-economic development strategies. In this respect, this collection brings a novel critical perspective to current policy, practice and scholarly debates on the connections between culture, place-making and the creative economy.

With respect to its geographical scope, the essays in the collection all focus on England and different localities within the country, and to the UK cultural policy context. The reason for this specific focus lies in the fact that the historical explorations presented in this volume are connected and complementary to empirical data gathering and ethnographic fieldwork conducted as part of the UEP project. This was focused on the comparative exploration of four different English ‘cultural ecosystems’² selected for their differing patterns of funding and participation levels (Manchester/Salford, Gateshead, Peterborough and Dartmoor).³ Whilst the specificity of place is central to the analysis offered, we suggest a wider relevance and applicability of the broader point the collection makes about the importance, for cultural policy analysis, of recognising the centrality of the interrelations between place, space, culture, local practices and policy-making. We hope the volume might inspire others to extend to and test our arguments in other geo-cultural settings.

Orthodox models of the creative economy and ensuing cultural policy models are based on a narrow definition of cultural participation: one that captures formal engagement with traditional cultural institutions, such as museums and galleries, but overlooks other activities, for instance community festivals and hobbies (Miles and Gibson 2016). This frame, founded historically on ‘deficit’-based assumptions of the logics for state cultural support (Miles and Sullivan 2012), misses opportunities to understand a wider and more representative variety of forms of participation and their (positive and negative) consequences. The essays in this collection are part of the project’s wider exploration of the meanings and the stakes that attach to ordinary, everyday participation (Miles and Gibson 2016, 2017).

Beyond the confines of this project, though, this collection fulfils an important need for researchers and practitioners in the fields of cultural policy, arts management, heritage, museum, theatre and leisure studies in providing much-needed historical insight that sheds light on contemporary issues of cultural value and governance which are of great topicality. A number of high-profile research initiatives in this area have been a feature of research in the arts and humanities in England especially since 2014, notably the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Cultural Value Project (Crossick and Kaszynska 2016), the Warwick Commission on the Future of Cultural Value (Neelands et al. 2015) and Arts Council England’s (ACE) dedicated work on cultural value and its measurement resulting, for instance, in reports such as ‘The Value of Arts and Culture to People and Society’ (2014) and ‘Understanding the Value and Impact of Cultural Experiences’ (2014). However, none of these initiatives adopt the distinctive approach of this collection, which is to illuminate contemporary policy issues through the investigation of their historical roots. The originality and value of this critical-historical approach is the disciplinary and intellectual significance of the chapters in this book.

At the core of this edited collection is the conviction that by creating new understandings of the relationships between everyday participation and cultural value, it becomes possible to reveal evidence of hidden assets and resources that can be mobilised to promote better identification and more equitable resourcing of cultural opportunities, generate well-being and contribute to the development of creative local economies. Approaching participation as an historically and spatially situated phenomenon, and articulating the effects of heritage, context and place by historicising and deconstructing present-day understandings of participation and cultural value is central to this endeavour and has the potential to open up new avenues of research in this area. This edited collection, thus, represents both an original contribution to scholarship and an intervention in more practice-oriented debates on creative approaches to community engagement, place-based development and regeneration strategies as well as policy formation.

Whilst it speaks to live debates in a number of germane fields of enquiry, the key intellectual location of the volume and its main scholarly contribution is within the field of cultural policy studies. Indeed, Histories of Cultural Participation, Values and Governance is the first integrated, critical-historical examination of the terms, narratives and assumptions constructing present-day notions of participation and value, and the relations between them, from the perspective of cultural policy-making. The book is organised via two interrelated thematic histories, which correspond to the two sections into which the book is divided. Part I’s chapters focus on the ways in which discourses of cultural participation and value have been developed and mobilised historically and, in turn, the effects of these discursive coordinates on the development of cultural institutions and practices. The point of departure for chapters in Part II is the ways in which cultural policies have been tools to manage populations in various different ways. In all cases, chapters interrogate the ways in which the ‘problem of cultural policy’, the ‘politics of cultural value’, and the ‘problem of participation’ are the product of long-run histories. Often these backstories are not acknowledged in debates about cultural policy, which therefore can become circular and self-referential. As demonstrated by the historical research presented in each of these chapters, providing the long view allows a fresh perspective on these ongoing discussions which enables us to square the circle, providing new and original positions on the utility and effects of cultural participation, policy and practice and new articulations and understanding of long-debated policy ‘challenges’.