Introduction. Rhetoric, Social Value and the Arts: But How Does it Work? - By Nicola Mann -- PART 1 -- 1. Who sets the agenda? Changing attitudes towards the relevance of small-scale visual arts organisations in the UK - By Rachel Mader -- 2. From Social Inclusion to Audience Numbers: Art Museums in the New Public Management - By Charlotte Bonham-Carter -- PART 2 -- 3. Re-Thinking the Social Turn: The Social Function of Art as Functionless and Anti-Social - By Ana Yarto Bilbao -- 4. The Paradoxical Engagement of Contemporary Art with Anti-Capitalism, Activism, and Protest - By Tijen Tunali -- PART 3 -- 5. Arte de Conducta: On Tania Bruguera's Tatlin's Whisper Series - By Andrés David Montenegro Rosero -- 6. PERCENT FOR GREEN: Creating Space as Consciousness - By Alicia Grullón -- PART 4 -- 7. Artists on the Gallery Payroll: A Case Study and a Corporate Turn - By Lawrence Bradby and Judith Stewart -- 8. Collecting Social Things - By Joey Orr -- Conclusion - By Charlotte Bonham-Carter.-.

The book reveals how the 'social value of art' may have one meaning for a policy maker, another for a museum and still yet another for an artist - and it is therefore in the interaction between these agents that we learn the most about the importance of rhetoric and interpretation. As a trajectory in art history, socially engaged art has a long and established history. However, in recent years-or since 'the social turn' that occurred in the 1990s-the rhetoric surrounding the social value of art has been assimilated by cultural policy makers and museums. Interdisciplinary in its approach, and bringing together contributions from artists, curators and academics, the volume explores rhetoric, social value and the arts within different social, political and cultural contexts. .