Where questions of equality and diversity are concerned, the cultural and creative industries (CCIs) have had a good press. Creative workplaces are often described as open, relaxed and bohemian, while the people who work in them are identified as members of a distinct 'creative class' characterised by lauded qualities and sensibilities such as inclusivity, tolerance, and the assumption that rewards are based on a meritocratic system of hard work (Florida, 2002). These assumed characteristics are often used as the basis for enacting creative industries policy on a national or city level, and work policy and educational institutions alike promote the idea that the cultural sector offers intrinsically satisfying 'good jobs' that are available to all those who possess the right talents and drive (Banks & Hesmondhalgh, 2009;Morgan & Nelligan, 2018) In recent years, however, increasing numbers of scholars have pointed to an uncomfortable truth: that these qualities and sensibilities tied so habitually to the creative industries might in fact be inaccurate. Catungal and Leslie (2009:116) argue that far from being sites of inclusivity, the spaces of CCIs are more often than not sites of 'intense segmentation and hierarchy' along race and gender lines. Worse still, Gill (2014) argues, the myth of openness, egalitarianism and diversity, may in fact be part of the very mechanism that maintains significant exclusions and inequalities -moreover, rendering them difficult to identify, let alone discuss or address. A growing body of research points to the CCIs, then, not as exemplary workplaces characterised by diverse workforces, but rather as occupations that are markedly striated by gender, class and racial inequalities-as well as by exclusions related to age and disability. This chapter builds on this work and the nascent body of research about inequalities in the CCIs focussing specifically on how creative and cultural hubs are situated in relation to class, gender, and race, thereby turning the lens of analysis and inquiry on the hyperlocal spaces of creative economic activity that are the subject of this book. Drawing on interviews, as well as secondary sources, previous work, and participant observation in three hubs in East London, we examine whether creative and cultural hubs contribute to greater diversity in the CCI workforce or whether they could be said to entrench privilege. It is apparent that work in this area is highly limited. Our analysis revolves around two interrelated questions: first, we ask what contextualises and constitutes inequality in creative and cultural hubs; and second does an emphasis upon, if curation is central to 'getting the community right' in these types of spaces contribute to a heightening rather than a diminishing of inequalities, particularly as decision making gets concentrated in the opaque process of 'curation'?The remainder of the chapter is divided into two broad sections. In the first part we look at the literature about inequalities in the CCI in general. In the second we draw ...
