1. Introduction -- Part I. Policy. 2. Who sets the agenda? Changing attitudes towards the relevance of small-scale visual arts organisations in the UK ; 3. From social inclusion to audience numbers: art museums in the new public management -- Part II. Theory. 4. Rethinking the social turn: the social function of art as functionless and anti-social ; 5. The paradoxical engagement of contemporary art with activism and protest -- Part III. Practice and artistic responses. 6. Arte de Conducta: on Tania Bruguera's Tatlin's Whisper series ; 7. PERCENT FOR GREEN: creating space as consciousness -- Part IV. Museums and institutional responses. 8. Artists on the gallery payroll: a case study and a corporate turn ; 9. Collecting social things ; 10. Conclusions -- Index