Our second research seminar this term will be held on Wednesday 24th February. Dave O'Brien from Goldsmiths will be presenting a paper from his research into the inequalities of the cultural labour market. Abstract and bio below.

The seminar will be at 5pm-6.30pm in G50 of Millburn House. Light refreshments will be provided. Please e-mail Paula Watkins on p.watkins@warwick.ac.uk to reserve your place.

Culture is bad for you: the inequalities of working life in creative occupations

There is currently widespread concern that Britain’s cultural and creative industries (CCIs) are increasingly dominated by those from privileged class origins. This stands in stark contrast to dominant policy narratives of the CCIs as meritocratic and open to all. Until now this debate has been clouded by a relative paucity of data on class origins. However, this paper draws on new social origin data from the 2014 Labour Force Survey (LFS) to provide the first large-scale, representative study of the class composition of Britain’s cultural workforce. The paper then empirically interrogates the issues raised by the LFS using data on actors from the Great British Class Survey (n= 404) and 47 qualitative interviews. The case study of acting demonstrates that actors from working-class origins are significantly underrepresented, in keeping with under-representations across creative professions. The case study then indicates that even when those from working-class origins do enter cultural professions they do not have access to the same economic, cultural and social capital as those from privileged backgrounds. Finally, and most significantly, interviews reveal how these capitals shape the way actors can respond to shared occupational challenges. In particular, the discussion demonstrates the profound occupational advantages afforded to those who can draw upon familial economic resources and legitimate embodied markers of class origin, countering narratives of meritocracy in cultural work.

Dave O'Brien is a senior lecturer in cultural policy. He is the author of Cultural Policy (Routledge) and the editor of After Urban Regeneration (Policy Press). His forthcoming edited collections are The Routledge Companion to Global Cultural Policy and The Routledge Major Works in Cultural Policy. He is the host of the new books in critical theory podcast and you can follow him on twitter @drdaveobrien