Why we still need to talk about class

Abstract

This article places the aim of the Incubate Propagate research network–to address the obstacles for artists outwith the graduate community to access theatre-making careers–in dialogue with some key and recurring concerns in contemporary debates around class identification in the twenty-first century. It argues that articulation of class discrimination and disadvantage in the field of theatre-making is critical, not despite the complexity of reaching contemporary definitions of class, but because that very complexity reveals precisely the extent of the problem and the specific, and often unconscious, ways in which discrimination is operating. The article extends the debate from an emphasis on economic capital to examine the critical importance of social and cultural capital to class identity, discrimination and privilege in the arts. It focuses, in particular, on ways in which the historical infantilization of the poor continues to influence artistic and policy decisions in the twenty-first century, and highlights the importance and challenges of emerging cultural capital in the sub-field of avant-garde and experimental theatre practice–the context in which emerging theatre-makers mostly operate.