Open to all? Examining class inequality in UK museum work through Bourdieu’s field-logics and the construction of ‘ideal’ career norms

This article provides a new theoretical framing - combining Bourdieu’s field-logics with ideal career norms – to investigate how occupational structures and cultures contribute to class inequality. Using a critical discourse analysis of interview, focus group and secondary data, it shows how logics and career norms are constructed in UK museum work; a field in flux. Three logics; a) foundational b) market c) public service, interact to shape career norms within UK museums. While the former two multiply class inequalities, the public service logic can potentially mitigate them. The logic-career norm framing shifts attention from class inequality as an individualised, universalised phenomenon, to one shaped by the distinct culture and structures of a field, its relations within and without; showing here the effects of government policy and ideology. The article extends the political potential of Bourdieu’s framework, explaining not just how class inequality persists, but also why.