The paper, Panic! Social Class, Taste and Inequalities in the Creative Industries, is based on almost 300 hours of interviews with creative professionals collected following a national survey in 2015 as part of Create’s first Panic! project. It is the first time that sociologists have compared large-scale national datasets on social mobility alongside industry-specific information, offering new insights into the tastes, values and engagement of cultural workers.

We partnered with the researchers, the Barbican and Arts Emergency to deliver this report and a sector-based event, In Focus, that discussed the results of the research, and encouraged the sector to reflect on the findings, and investigate new ways to affect change in the industry, which culminated in an evening talk with Reni Eddo-Lodge. You can hear audio from each of the conversations on the Barbican’s Nothing Concrete podcast here.

Since the publication of the Panic! report we have made it a priority to look at ourselves and put the paper’s findings at the heart of our projects. It’s informing all of our work, from the way we recruit staff and artists, to the type of project we take on. In the year since publication, the Panic! report has inspired podcasts (check out The 18% Podcast), conferences, press campaigns, MP inquiries and more.

Explore the tabs to the left (or below on mobile) for more information and to read the full paper.

 This project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and delivered in partnership with the Universities of Edinburgh and Sheffield, and Arts Emergency.