Are the creative industries meritocratic? An analysis of the 2014 British Labour Force Survey

Abstract

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 to provide the first large-scale, representative study of the class composition of Britain's cultural workforce. The analysis demonstrates that CCIs show significant variation in terms of their individual 'openness', although there is a general under-representation of those from working class origins across the sector as a whole. This under-representation is especially pronounced in publishing and music, in contrast to, for example, craft. Moreover, even when those from working-class backgrounds enter certain CCIs, such as museums, galleries, libraries and IT, they face a 'class origin pay gap' compared to those from higher professional and managerial backgrounds. Finally, the paper discusses how these class inequalities in access and pay between individual CCIs point to particular occupational subcultures that resist aggregation into DCMS' broader category of CCIs. The paper concludes by suggesting the importance of disaggregating CCIs, particularly within policymaking, and rethinking the definition and boundaries of CCIs as a meaningful category.

Access Inequalities in the Artistic Labour Market in the UK: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Precariousness, Entrepreneurialism and Voluntarism

“…In times of crisis, in particular, artists are portrayed as model entrepreneurs generating new jobs, and as a force of resistance and social action against the neoliberal transformation of the artistic field (Gill and Pratt, ; Throsby, ). Before the financial crisis in 2008, the notion of social enterprise was government‐driven, aiming to provide public support for private initiatives, which resulted in an increase in precariousness, as arts professionals from less privileged backgrounds encountered greater difficulties in accessing the artistic labour market (Teasdale, ; O'Brien et al ., ).…”

“…Despite the increase of new jobs in the creative economy since 2011 (Figure ), the majority of those jobs have increasingly been occupied by creative workers from more advantaged socio‐economic groups (Figure ). With the exception of ‘crafts’, creative workers from more privileged socio‐economic backgrounds have advantage when seeking employment in the artistic labour market (Table ; O'Brien et al ., ).…”

Introduction: creativity, knowledge and innovation in virtual work

“…A clearer understanding of the class, gender and global dynamics of creativity and knowledge possession and deployment is also sorely needed. We know, for instance, that the creative industries, particularly publishing, film and television, are dominated by workers with professional middle class backgrounds and excellent social capital, as well as, increasingly, the economic resources to support them through unpaid internships (Randle et al ., ; O'Brien et al ., ). Nevertheless, the relationship between employers and even the most privileged of knowledge workers is characterised by a profound imbalance of power and one which is arguably becoming increasingly asymmetrical as work is progressively dominated by precarious forms of employment, including free labour (Gill, ; Ross, ; Terranova, ).…”

Organization studies of inequality, with and beyond Piketty

“…So Cap21st dispels the myth of contemporary capitalism's meritocratic nature (see also Castilla, and Bernard, 2010;Littler, 2013;O' Brien et al, 2016), by highlighting how inherited wealth is one of contemporary inequality's crucial underpinnings.…”