Culture is Bad for You

The revised and updated edition of this popular title shines a light on the precarious situation of art workers today.

Culture keeps you fit and healthy. Culture brings communities together. Culture improves your education. This is the message endlessly repeated by the government and arts organisations. But, as this ground-breaking book explains, we need to be cautious about culture.

Culture is Bad For You presents an unflinching portrait of the cultural landscape in the UK today. It reveals how women, people of colour, and those from working-class backgrounds are systematically excluded, despite the claims of cultural institutions and businesses. Updated to provide a report on the situation after COVID, this edition reveals that despite grand promises from those at the top, exclusion and precarity remain the norm.

While inequalities of workforce and audience remain unaddressed, the positive contribution culture makes to society can never be fully realised. This book offers a powerful call to transform cultural and creative industries.

'If you'd like something to wave in the face of naysayers who think the cream always rises to the top, this is it.' Kit de Waal, author of My Name is Leon