Educational background, social circle, current job and upbringing all impact career trajectories. Now new research from Creative Access sheds light on the pervasive influence of class dynamics in the UK's creative industries.
The unsettling truth is that social class barriers and biases are pervasive throughout the creative industries. Talented journalists, artists and actors from 'lower' socioeconomic backgrounds face a grotesquely unlevel playing field, characterised by a series of material and cultural hurdles that impede their progress. If you don’t benefit from a financial safety net during the precarious early career years, or the know-how of navigating the middle class workplace norms, then you’re significantly less likely to make it.
A big concern from this survey is that those from higher social classes are far less likely than their working class colleagues to express acute concern about the lack of working-class representation at senior levels. At the same time, Asian, Black and Mixed or multiple ethnic groups respondents were significantly more likely to express this concern compared with white respondents. This suggests we need to do more to challenge those in powerful positions to recognise this missing dimension of diversity. Class discrimination, meanwhile, is a struggle that impacts a richly diverse set of people... Keep reading on Creative Access.
The unsettling truth is that social class barriers and biases are pervasive throughout the creative industries. Talented journalists, artists and actors from 'lower' socioeconomic backgrounds face a grotesquely unlevel playing field, characterised by a series of material and cultural hurdles that impede their progress. If you don’t benefit from a financial safety net during the precarious early career years, or the know-how of navigating the middle class workplace norms, then you’re significantly less likely to make it.
A big concern from this survey is that those from higher social classes are far less likely than their working class colleagues to express acute concern about the lack of working-class representation at senior levels. At the same time, Asian, Black and Mixed or multiple ethnic groups respondents were significantly more likely to express this concern compared with white respondents. This suggests we need to do more to challenge those in powerful positions to recognise this missing dimension of diversity. Class discrimination, meanwhile, is a struggle that impacts a richly diverse set of people... Keep reading on Creative Access.