ABSTRACT
The choice of making a career in cultural management cannot be seen either as the result of necessity or, as its opposite, of the complete freedom to do anything one wishes. The majority of aspirants make a genuine choice to be trained and work in cultural management. For the majority of applicants, enrolling in a master’s programme in cultural management is more demanding than continuing their previous studies would have been. It is a directly professional choice, in the sense that the programme serves as the last stage of preparation for seeking employment. The choice of cultural management is rather rooted in the attraction to culture and the personal and professional perspectives it may offer rather than in the contents of a specific activity or the characteristics of a specific job. The increasing scarcity and difficulty of upward social mobility trajectories through culture means that one of the social foundations of belief in cultural democratization is crumbling.
