Alexandre Frenette - Blame the Intern: On (Not) Breaking into the Creative Economy (Princeton University Press, 2026)
A book talk by the BSA Sociology of Arts and Work, Employment & Economic Life (WEEL) Study Groups
24 September 2026 (5.30-7.00pm BST)
Online (via Zoom)
About the Event
- Author: Alexandre Frenette
- Discussants: Karen Gregory and Mark Banks
Since the 1980s, shifts in labor markets and careers have made employers less prone to invest in training entry-level employees who may quickly change jobs anyway. In recent decades, higher education has filled the gap, fueling an explosive growth of internships to facilitate the transition from college to a career. Drawing on in-depth interviews with interns, record label employees, and college personnel, as well as participant observation as an unpaid intern at two music industry firms in New York City, Blame the Intern sheds light on who benefits from the intern economy, who suffers, and why.
Frenette finds that internships are rife with ambiguity because employers are neither trained nor greatly rewarded to mentor and colleges are ill-equipped to provide workplace guidance. As a result, there is little consensus about what interns should be doing or what benefits they should be gaining from their experience, which can often lead to inequality, exploitation, and disappointment. Alexandre Frenette is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Vanderbilt University.
Registration
This event is free to attend but registration is required.