Creative Networks and Social Capital

This chapter explores the role of networks and associations for cultural workers within the creative economy, and then considers the implications of research findings in this area for the practices and curriculum of higher education institutions (HEIs), and their relationship to creative sectors. Networks and networking can be seen as crucial practices for finding work, sustaining a career and progressing within the often freelance and insecure labour markets of the cultural industries. Yet, who is best placed to undertake networking successfully? Research in this area raises important concerns about the network culture that has developed within cultural labour markets (Oakley, 2006; Ashton, 2011; Lee, 2011; Allen et al., 2012). On the surface the reliance upon networks as a means of recruitment and finding work appears to offer a relatively frictionless and non-hierarchical method of facilitating labour market processes in this area. Unburdened by the administrative demands of formal job recruitment, managers are able to rely on word-of-mouth and informal associations to recruit in highly freelance, contract-based labour markets. However, on closer inspection, they actually act as mechanisms of exclusion, favouring individuals with high levels of cultural and social capital.