Loving cultural work at Southbank Centre: Evolutions of emotional, embodied, collaborative labour

Abstract

This article scrutinises a recent moment of cultural work at Southbank Centre, drawing on empirical research including 32 interviews carried out over a 4-year period. It supports the view that it is important to extend our historical understanding of cultural work and argues that cultural labour and affective economy debates need to be situated in longer institutional contexts. Focusing on what it describes as ‘emotional, embodied, collaborative labour’, it analyses these tropes in relation to both specific histories of Southbank Centre and to broader theories of cultural work and emotional labour. It also argues that by unpacking the changing forms of emotional labour required by cultural workers at Southbank Centre, we can develop our understanding of how and why cultural work evolves within specific contexts. During the period I researched Southbank Centre, the need for individualised, ‘appropriate’ emotional labour, and the ability to facilitate enjoyable visitor experiences was made key for cultural workers, and yet the adept demonstration of these personal attributes is not something which is equally available to all. Through analysis of both academic theory and findings from my research, the article therefore unpacks how collaborative working practices coexist with emotional labour, embodied work and the production of an affective visitor experience as well as being shaped by their cultural–political contexts.