The industries that produce intellectual property, also known as "creative industries," play a pivotal role in the economies of advanced countries. Yet, we know little about what influences people who work in these industries. My dissertation examines whether socialization patterns affect selection into creative positions and how professionals in the field attain legitimacy. Focusing on the  case of advertising professionals, I will examine the link between socialization patterns and creativity: whether early exposure to diverse ideas and cultural forms increases the chance that an individual will seek out a creative position. This project will also contribute to the theoretical debate on culture and inequality by demonstrating how cultural signals are used to gain legitimacy in the workplace. Data will be collected through a survey distributed to a random sample of advertising professionals. In addition, the study involves forty semi-structured interviews with professionals employed in elite advertising agencies and four months of participant observation within an agency.

This project has practical implications for employers as well as educators preparing students to enter the creative industries. Labor markets in advanced industrialized countries around the world are shifting towards occupations related to the knowledge economy, including but not limited to the creative sector. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the European Commission and the United States Census, creative industries are the fastest growing sector in many industrialized countries. By contributing to our understanding of this large and growing economic sector, the project may inform our ability to maximize global competitiveness. Findings from this study may also inform training and education programs that focus on providing cultural literacy with the goal to train the next generation of professionals in the field.

National Science Foundation award information available here.
Survey respondents may fill out a contact form to be updated on the project's progress here.