Developing professional equality: an analysis of a social movement in the Scottish dance industry

Patrick, Holly; Bowditch, Caroline

Abstract

This article analyses the growth of professional equality in the Scottish dance industry. It defines the growth of professional equality as a social movement driven by a group of core and peripheral individuals and organisations bound together by a shared cause. Through defining professional equality as a social movement, the article analyses the challenges, strategies and contextual factors
that enabled the emergence of Scotland as a ‘hotspot’ for disabled dancers. The data used in this article is an autoethnographic account of professional equality coproduced by the first author (as interrogator) and the second author (as autoethnographer). Using the
autoethnographic method allows us to address the development of professional equality ‘from within’ the movement and to highlight three key factors that drive the movement forward: the genesis of the professional equality movement within the dance industry (rather than outside it); informal networks, which secure information sharing
and collective advocacy across the sector; and the institutional characteristics of the industry, in particular the lack of a national disability arts organisation.

Citation

Patrick, H., & Bowditch, C. (2013). Developing professional equality: an analysis of a social movement in the Scottish dance industry. Scottish Journal of Performance, 1(1), 75-97. https://doi.org/10.14439/sjop.2013.0101.05

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 1, 2013
• Online Publication Date: Dec 13, 2013
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2013
• Deposit Date: Sep 22, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 22, 2016
• Journal: Scottish Journal of Performance
• Print ISSN: 2054-1953
• Electronic ISSN: 2054-1961
• Publisher: Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 1
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 75-97
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.14439/sjop.2013.0101.05
• Keywords: dance industry, professional equality, social movements, autoethnography
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/354482