Claire Burnill-Maier

Building on scholarly works from Sociology, Cultural Policy, and Organisational theory, my PhD project provided relational insights into relative organisational power within the Arts and Cultural institution.  This interdisciplinary, mixed methods research revealed important insights into how organisations construct legitimacy and use non-economic capitals to secure relative power.

Drawing from these insights, my current research explores themes including legitimacy construction through credentials, professional narratives, and coopetition strategies as modes of symbolic violence.  Understanding the role and function of these modes of legitimation has particular relevance for policy makers, organisations in hyper-local contexts as well as for those organisations operating within the amateur sector.

To explore these themes further I am particularly interested in developing methodologies for evidencing the role and nature of organisational power within institutional fields.

Further teaching and research interests include: The sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, institutional logics, credential society, meritocracy in institutional contexts, cultural policy, network analysis, power and control in institutional contexts, social inequality, cultural democracy, local cultural policy.