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.