Report on museums, class and the pandemic

A recent report investigates the lived experiences of working-class Londoners in London during the Covid-19 pandemic. The research presents a complex and nuanced image of working-class communities, which the authors believe museums in the UK and elsewhere should attend to more closely.

The report intends to fuel broader reflection in the heritage sector on how museums can more proactively engage with class differences and structural inequalities beyond the pandemic, demonstrating the significance of using class as an analytical category in both museum theory and practice. The research for this report was undertaken at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, as part of the Museum of London ground-breaking Curating London programme.

The report concludes with a set of recommendations on how museums can best research, document and collect the ever-increasing socio-economic inequalities and class differences in Britain and elsewhere.

The report is written by Serena Iervolino and Domenico Sergi. The project was collaboratively developed by the Museum of London, and the Department of Culture, Media and Creative Industries, King’s College London.