Social inequality in the creative economy

Orian Brook, University of Edinburgh

(Project no. 1008121)

There is widespread concern that Britain's cultural and creative industries (CCIs) are increasingly dominated by those from privileged class origins, in contrast to dominant policy narratives of the CCIs as meritocratic and diverse. Recent analysis of the Labour Force Survey (O'Brien et al, 2016) has confirmed an under-representation of people from working class origins in the sector, with substantial variations by occupation. This paper will examine longitudinal trends in the social origins of these occupations to identify whether there was a golden age of a classless creative sector, or if those from elite family backgrounds have always dominated. Our approach allows for an empirical test of Banks' (2017) hypothesis that social mobility in cultural occupations tracks the post-war expansion in other elite professions, and the exploration of important intersections with gender.