Articles

The promotional state ‘after neo-liberalism’: ideologies of governance and New Zealand's pop renaissance

Michael Scott^a1 and David Craig^a2

^a1 School of Environment, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia E-mail: michael.scott@flinders.edu.au

^a2 Department of Sociology, University of Auckland, PO Box 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand E-mail: da.craig@auckland.ac.nz

Abstract

This article responds to Frith and Cloonan's (2008) call for researchers considering the relationship between the state and popular music to analyse more closely the ideologies of governance that undergird music policy. Building on Cloonan's ‘promotional state’ and drawing on recent New Zealand experience, this paper shows how New Zealand's Labour government (1999–2008) developed policies to support the export of ‘Kiwi’ pop which requires a reconsideration of state music policy as interventions in the market. The work of the New Zealand Music Commission in generating and coordinating working partnerships with diverse music industry actors illustrates emerging forms of ‘after neo-liberal’ ideology and governance, wherein state-related actors and musicians each and together adapt to market arrangements through supply side, social inclusion and new institutional policy settings and modalities. This article offers points of comparison to types of ideological and governing/institutional formations we can expect to see emerging in promotional states elsewhere.

Michael Scott is a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the School of Environment, Flinders University, South Australia. His current research is on the political economy and institutional and governance arrangements of sustainable coastal management.

David Craig is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, University of Auckland and has research interests in neo-liberalism and political economy. He is the co-author, with Doug Porter, of Development Beyond Neo-liberalism: Governance, Poverty Reduction and Political Economy, published by Routledge in 2006. His current research is on how new institutional decentralised governance reforms in Cambodia interact with that country's neo-patrimonial governance regimen.