In its own image: New Labour and the cultural workforce

Abstract

The argument of this paper is that one way to examine the legacy of New Labour's cultural policies, including its development of the creative industries, is through an account of the cultural workforce it has created.

The idea of “creative industries” embodied a set of assumptions about the changing nature of work which had been central to New Labour's reinvention during its years in the wilderness under Margaret Thatcher. Dubbed “post-Fordist socialism” by Thompson, the premise of many creative industry support initiatives was that the kind of work they provided was inherently progressive, combining demand for high skills with notions of self-expression and determination, in a workplace that was no longer hierarchical, but collaborative, flexible, even fun.

Yet empirical evidence from the New Labour period suggests that the assumptions of inherently progressive work are largely unfounded. The cultural labour market remains polarised by gender, ethnicity and social class. Despite high levels of graduates, wages were low, and combined with the practice of unpaid “internships”, and highly informal recruitment practices, class-based exclusion, often reflected in ethnicity, was a defining feature of the sector.

The paper thus provides both a historical account of New Labour ideas about work and how they shaped public policy, and a contemporary account of policy initiatives around workforce entry. Its aim is to interrogate the assumptions and limitations of New Labour's “creative workforce”, and through this, its wider policies on work, culture and social exclusion.

Keywords:

• New Labour
• cultural work
• precarity
• labour markets
• creative industries

Notes

Lewisham was one of the LDA's “creative hubs”.

See Deptford/Greenwich (n.d.).

See Ross (2003) for a critique of this notion.

The term “Third Italy” was used to distinguish the clusters of small firms in the north-east of the country from either the poor south of Italy or the traditionally wealthy north-west. Unlike the larger employers of the north-west, these smaller firms, often in manufacturing, were seen to withstand the economic crises of the 1970s and early 1980s. This finding was attributed to their dense clustering and high rates of innovation. In particular, the specialised business support offered by “real service” centres was influential on models of creative industries business support.

This concept, in slightly different form, seems to have become popular again, at least with think tanks. See Davies (2009) and Blond (2009).

The expression “human capital” is generally taken to mean the stock of skills and knowledge required to work and, hence, to produce economic value (Becker, 1964).