Dance Mapping - Arts Council England

Given the dependence of much of the dance field in England on public funding support, this
perspective, termed the ‘resource dependence perspective’, is potentially critical in
understanding the dance environment, the ecology and resulting economy.
Pfeffer and Salancik examine the phenomena of ‘externally controlled organisations’ those
that are dependent on their environments:
‘To survive organisations require resources. Typically acquiring resources means the
organisation must interact with others who control those resources. In that sense
organisations depend on their environments. Because the organisation does not control the
resources it needs, resource acquisition may be problematic and uncertain. Others who
control resources may be undependable, particularly when resources are scarce.’ 6
This perspective is an important one both for a dance field heavily dependent on public
support and for the organisations that manage and allocate this support. It highlights the
fragility and the uncertainty that the field experiences as a result of its external dependency.
Within an organisational field there is strong evidence to suggest that a process of
homogenisation occurs:
‘Once disparate organisations in the same line of business are structured into an actual field
(as we argue, by competition, the state or the professions), powerful forces emerge that lead
them to become more similar to one another.’ 7
Many of our dance companies and agencies ‘look’ similar and operate with a similar business
model. Di Maggio and Powell (1991) suggest several factors that create this homogenisation
and call the concept isomorphism. Isomorphism is a constraining process that forces one unit
in a population to resemble other units that face the same set of environmental conditions
(Hawley 1968). Institutional isomorphism occurs when organisations compete, not just for
resources and customers, but for political power and legitimacy. This process can be applied
to dance.
Di Maggio and Powell suggest that isomorphism occurs through three mechanisms:
1. Coercive isomorphism results from both formal and informal pressures on
organisations by other organisations upon which they are dependent. In other words
organisations respond to external pressure in order to maintain their resource base.
This can be evidenced in responses to Arts Council England’s requirements of
regularly funded organisations.
2. Mimetic isomorphism results from imitation and standard responses to uncertainty. In
other words they model themselves on other organisations.
6 Pfeffer and Salancik (2003) p 258
7 Di Maggio and Powell (1991) p 65
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