How Policy Models are Created within the Global Space of Ideas: an Urban Reference Network Approach

Keywords: networks, policy mobility, arts and culture policy, globalization
Abstract Type: Virtual Paper Abstract

Abstract

In a globally interconnected world, ideas and prominent policy models are generated within a global space of ideas. This space is structured by multiple learning networks in which local actors often look to other places for models. In this paper we examine how policy ideas about the production of cultural and creative goods gain prominence, via the case of the Percent for Art Ordinance - a mechanism of allocating a percentage of the city’s capital budgets to public art. To do so, we construct a type of network that we term an “urban reference network.” This is a network in which the nodes are cities and the edges are references by actors in one city to another city or their own city. The reference network provides the basis for hypotheses about when and why some cites come to serve as models to others, shaping the flow of ideas among them.
We build the reference network from a collection of public-art related policy documents from 26 cities with at least one million residents, published between 1959-2020 (N=154). Using natural language processing, we track all the names of cities mentioned in this corpus, and plot referencing networks which show which cities mention which. With a close reading of these networks, we examine the dynamics by which prominent models about public art have emerged. Specifically, we ask two main types of questions: 1) Who do cities adopt ideas from? and 2) What are the mechanisms that facilitate the adoption of policy ideas?