Getting in, getting on, getting out? Women as career scramblers in the UK film and television industries

This article looks at the predominance of freelancing in the film and television industries as a lens to examine the persistence of gender inequalities within these fields. Previous research has indicated that women fare better in larger organizations with more stable patterns of employment, and in this article we explore why that might be the case, by focusing on the experiences of female freelancers at a moment when project-based, precarious work and informal recruitment practices are increasing in the UK film and television sector. We highlight in particular the ways in which gender inequality is mediated by age and parental status, and the impact of intersectional identities on women's ability to sustain a career in film and television

All work and no pay: consequences of unpaid work experience in the creative industries

This research note evaluates the benefits and pitfalls of unpaid work as an entry route into employment in the creative industries and investigates the consequences of this practice for those who already work in the sector. Based on a qualitative study of perspectives of stakeholders in unpaid work, this article argues that the social capital thesis, often used as a rationale for unpaid work, inadequately explains the practice of unpaid work experience, primarily because it does not take cognisance of the consequences of this practice for other people working in the sector. The study also highlights methodological issues that need to be considered in the future. As well as the importance of a plurality of stakeholder perspectives, the study emphasizes the need to consider the perspectives of those who are excluded from unpaid work and those who are potentially displaced by it

‘Like Skydiving without a Parachute’: How Class Origin Shapes Occupational Trajectories in British Acting

There is currently widespread concern that access to, and success within, the British acting profession is increasingly dominated by those from privileged class origins. This article seeks to empirically interrogate this claim using data on actors from the Great British Class Survey (N = 404) and 47 qualitative interviews. First, survey data demonstrate that actors from working-class origins are significantly underrepresented within the profession. Second, they indicate that even when those from working-class origins do enter the profession they do not have access to the same economic, cultural and social capital as those from privileged backgrounds. Third, and most significantly, qualitative interviews reveal how these capitals shape the way actors can respond to shared occupational challenges. In particular we demonstrate the profound occupational advantages afforded to actors who can draw upon familial economic resources, legitimate embodied markers of class origin (such as Received Pronunciation) and a favourable typecasting

The cultural contradictions of the creative city

This paper is concerned with both what creative cities are imagined to be, as well as what they actually are. This is a challenge for policy makers. Overall, the paper seeks to create a platform for a more nuanced and subtle approach to creativity, culture and cities: one that is situated and not universal. It seeks to map out an approach that is concerned not simply with the growth possibilities, but also redistributive strategies. In so doing it questions whether can we conceive of creative cities as a truly progressive field of policy and practice, in direct contrast to what we judge to be the socially regressive form they take at present. The paper is divided into three main parts. The first locates the creative city within the discourse of place marketing, but flags up the tensions between the universalism of place marketing, and the particularities of culture and creativity. The second critically examines notions of liberalism and creativity as they underpin the creative city. The final part takes the actually existing creative city and highlights many of the negative and regressive elements of policies that promote them. The paper argues for the need for more nuanced approaches, and for more attention to the (lack of) redistributive outcomes in existing creative city debates

Towards a Bourdieusian analysis of the social composition of the UK film and television workforce

This is an Open Access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page(http://www.uk.sagepub.com/aboutus/openaccess.htm).The social composition of the workforce of the UK film and television industries does not reflect the diversity of the population and the industries have been described as white, male and middle class. While the lack of specific demographic representation in employment (for example gender or ethnicity) has been highlighted by both industry and academic commentators, its broader social composition has rarely been addressed by research. This article draws on the work of Bourdieu, particularly the concepts of field, habitus and capitals, to explore perceptions of the barriers to entry into these industries and the way in which individuals negotiate these by drawing on the various capitals to which they have access.Peer reviewe

Entangled expertise: Women’s use of social media in entrepreneurial work

Social media platforms are important to self-employed cultural workers as a means of reaching markets and promoting the entrepreneur’s brand identity. But beyond self-branding, how are notions of expertise negotiated by individual cultural entrepreneurs and how does this relate to gender? This article addresses issues of identity and professionalism for women cultural entrepreneurs by focusing on their use of Twitter. Given the well documented gender and ethnic inequalities in cultural industry work, what does women’s use of Twitter tell us about the nature of women's professional identities within neoliberal economies? We argue that online platforms are an important space for self-employed cultural workers and that within this context, ideas of femininity and entrepreneurship are entangled. The article concludes by discussing the value of examining social media spaces as a means of exploring the presentation of women's expertise in a postfeminist era

Self-authorship and creative industries workers’ career decision-making

Career decision-making is arguably at its most complex within professions where work is precarious and career calling is strong. This article reports from a study that examined the career decision-making of creative industries workers, for whom career decisions can impact psychological well-being and identity just as much as they impact individuals’ work and career. The respondents were 693 creative industries workers who used a largely open-ended survey to create in-depth reflections on formative moments and career decision-making. Analysis involved the theoretical model of self-authorship, which provides a way of understanding how people employ their sense of self to make meaning of their experiences. The self-authorship process emerged as a complex, non-linear and consistent feature of career decision-making. Theoretical contributions include a non-linear view of self-authorship that exposes the authorship of visible and covert multiple selves prompted by both proactive and reactive identity work

On the basis of risk: how screen executives' risk perceptions and practices drive gender inequality in directing

This paper explores how gendered perceptions of risk drive gender inequality. It does so by applying an Intersectional Risk Theory (IRT) framework to new empirical data on gender equality initiatives in the Canadian screen industries. The paper shows (1) that gendered risk perceptions constrain women directors’ work opportunities; (2) that the construction of gendered risk perceptions (‘doing risk’) is shaped by the screen industry context and social inequalities generally; and (3) that practices of constructing risk perceptions can be disrupted and changed, which creates opportunities for a ‘re-doing’ or ‘un-doing’ of gendered perceptions of risk and offers new analytical perspectives onto the efficacy of gender equality initiatives. By interrogating how perceptions of risk inform decision-making the paper contributes new understandings of the drivers of systemic and intersectional inequality as a defining characteristic of work and labour markets in the screen industries, and in the creative industries more broadly

Unpaid work in the UK television and film industries: Resistance and changing attitudes

This article concerns resistance to unpaid work in the television and film industries. It outlines one notable and successful campaign against unpaid labour which was conducted in the UK television industry and discusses how a similar campaign in the film industry met much greater opposition. It then reports on a survey that was conducted in order to investigate the seeming differences in attitudes in the two industries observed during these campaigns. While confirming that workers in the film industry are more prepared to accept unpaid labour than television workers, the survey also revealed a more striking characteristic: those who have worked longer in either sector view unpaid labour considerably less favourably than relative newcomers. The article discusses possible reasons for this, such as self-interest and altruistic attitudes towards younger workers; it also explores some implications for future working conditions, and for the role of activism and solidarity in resisting the worst aspects of existing labour relations in the cultural industries