A 2000 word essay on the topic:
A reflection on the question whether gender and ethnicity, or other dimensions of identity affect cultural work.
Theme
Regardless of their particular theoretical perspectives (as identified in the previous three weeks of class), authors in this field have agreed that there are particular social and cultural divisions of labour in the cultural industries. These have to do, particularly, with gender, ethnicity, age, and geography Despite Richard Florida’s claim that the presence of gays and bohemians are a prerequisite to the development of successful creative class, the cultural sector is very traditionally stratified, with white heterosexual able and middle class men dominating most of the workforce.
Reading
Banks, M. and Milestone, K. (2011). Individualization, Gender and Cultural Work. Gender, Work & Organization, 18, 73–89. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-0432.2010.00535.x http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2010.00535.x/full
Cochrane, K. (2011). Why is British public life dominated by men? The Guardian, December 4, 2011. http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/dec/04/why-british-public-life-dominated-men
DePeuter, G. and N.Dyer-Whitford (2005). A playful multitude? Mobilising and counter-mobilising immaterial game labour. The Fibreculture Journal, 5, FCJ-024. http://five.fibreculturejournal.org/fcj-024-a-playful-multitude-mobilising-and-counter-mobilising-immaterial-game-labour/
Florida, R. and Gates, G. (2003). Technology and tolerance: the importance of diversity to high-technology growth. In T.N. Clark (ed) The City as an Entertainment Machine (Research in Urban Policy, Volume 9), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.199-219. http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/1000492_tech_and_tolerance.pdf
Gill, R. (2002). Cool, Creative and Egalitarian? Exploring Gender in Project-Based New Media Work in Euro. Information, Communication & Society, 5(1), 70-89. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13691180110117668
Nixon, S. and B. Crewe (2004). Pleasure at Work? Gender, Consumption and Work‐based Identities in the Creative Industries. Consumption Markets & Culture, 7(2), 129-147. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/1025386042000246197
Oakley, K. (2006). Include Us Out—Economic Development and Social Policy in the Creative Industries. Cultural Trends, 15(4), 255-273.http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09548960600922335
Smallbone, D., Bertotti,M. and I. Ekanem, (2005). Diversification in ethnic minority business: The case of Asians in London's creative industries. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 12(1), 41 – 56. http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/4835/1/Diversification_in_ethnic_minority_business_-_the_case_of_Asians.pdf