Diversity, Credibility and Cultural Labour as ‘Skill’: Racialised Experiences of Young People in the Creative Industries

This article investigates how diversity agendas in the creative industries shape systems of value and credibility for racialised young workers. It asks whether the 21st century skills framework, which includes skills and competencies like ‘social and cultural awareness,’ can be leveraged to recognise the cultural labour and embodied knowledge of racialised youth. Using data from an action research study of non-white, migrant-background interns at a global media organisation’s Australian office, the article examines how these young people mobilise ‘diversity cred’. It is argued that ‘diversity cred’ functions both as a specific formation of subcultural value, and as a strategic resource for creative industries companies looking to signal good organisational citizenship. The study highlights the interns’ challenges, including the burdens of cultural labour and feelings of non-belonging conditioned by a racially coded (white) habitus within the workplace. It also reveals young people’s capacity for critical and transformative leadership in these industries, despite the commodification of their racialised knowledge.