Selection and survival in the field of cultural production: a longitudinal study of the Australian census

Abstract

Research on work in the Creative and Cultural Industries (CCI) often combines macro-level accounts of political economy with small-scale studies, often qualitative, of work in specific organisations and/or sectors. While rich in both the theory and qualitative detail of creative labour, and especially useful for the study of precarious and informal work, such studies cannot capture population movements within cultural employment over time, nor the factors associated with continuing employment. The Australian Census Longitudinal Dataset (ACLD) provides a unique opportunity to track a national sample of workers in a broad range of cultural occupations across two waves of the Australian census, 2006 and 2016. This provides an opportunity to consider the factors associated with both selection into, and continuity within, cultural production employment. The study of factors associated with primary employment in cultural occupations is significant, as such positions are a relatively privileged resource within a broader field characterised by temporary and informal work arrangements, including casual, contract and unpaid work, that are not captured in the Census. The question of who holds these positions is a question of social distribution. We examine the key factors such as gender, age, qualifications, geography and household dynamics, to compare their relative importance in determining the employment and continuity of work in the field of cultural production.