ABSTRACT
The last chapter is concerned with aesthetics in relation to the field of socially situated practice, and looks at how and where the aesthetic is located in process-based work. This leads to the issue of function in art as it breaks with thinking that originated in the Enlightenment that placed this wholly within the aesthetic realm. Despite practical function in more recent times becoming a regular and even desirable feature of socially engaged art, this aspect of the work has been frequently criticised and denigrated. A case is therefore made for utility and why this has constituted such an important and necessary element to the projects. The book ends with a look at recent political and arts policy and proposes how best to support art for social transformation, while signaling the need for new strategies in the light of the current move to the right in western populism.
