Towards more proactive theories of creative labour: a literature review

Towards more proactive theories of creative labour:a literature review

Ananay AguilarUniversity of Cambridge

8th June 2015

1. Performers' rights2. Aim3. Evidence

Performers' rights: music-making in the digital era

The turn to creative labour

Matt Stahl (2013)

Unfree masters:recording artists and the politics of work

individualisation casualisationincreased competition less in exchangesuppression alienation

anxieties are warranted

Angela McRobbie (2001)

'Clubs to companies: notes on the decline of political culture in speeded up creative worlds'

individualisation casualisationincreased competition less in exchangesuppression alienationanxieties are warranted self-exploitation

decline of the indies loss of workplace policies increase of structural divides

Emma Dowling, Rodrigo Nunes and Ben Trott (2007)

'Immaterial and affective labour: explored'

individualisation casualisationincreased competition less in exchangesuppression alienationanxieties are warranted self-exploitation

decline of the indies loss of workplace policies increase of structural divides

scepticism ambivalence exploitationoppression

Andrew Beck (2003)

Cultural work

individualisation casualisationincreased competition less in exchangesuppression alienationanxieties are warranted self-exploitation

decline of the indies loss of workplace policies increase of structural divides

scepticism ambivalence exploitationoppression

recombinant culture limitations

Gabriele Klein (2013)

'Labour, life, art'

individualisation casualisationincreased competition less in exchangesuppression alienationanxieties are warranted self-exploitation

decline of the indies loss of workplace policies increase of structural divides

scepticism ambivalence exploitationoppression

recombinant culture limitationsconstitutive of life leisure maximises

productivity

Is it really so bad?

Mark Banks (2007)

The politics of cultural work

1. Critical theory approaches

2. Neo-Foucauldian or governmental approaches

3. Liberal democratic theory (?)

Whichever way the art-commerce relation is being reshaped and

configured, the notion that cultural workers are merely the servile

and alienated victims of global capital or, alternatively, self-

governing agents of 'network sociality' is, to put it bluntly, a

fundamentally problematic one given the diversity of business

models and identity positions that now circulate within the

certainly precarious—but also more open and reflexive—cultural

production field. (185)

Bojana Kunst (2011)

'Art and labour': on consumption, laziness and work'

David Hesmondhalgh and Sarah Baker (2011)

Creative labour: media work in three cultural industries

What kind of experiences do jobs and occupations in the cultural industries offer their workers?

We need to hold on to the ambivalence of creative work, and to

recognise that firms and other institutions differ in terms of what

kinds of conditions and experiences they make available for their

workers, including how much they respect autonomy and workers'

needs to make good products. This suggests that there is a highly

significant issue for those concerned with equality and social

justice in relation to creative work, which recent critical accounts

from cultural studies may have served to marginalise. (222)

Eleonora Belfiore and Oliver Bennett (2010)

'Beyond the toolkit approach: arts impact evaluation research and the realities of cultural policy-making'

Government officials use research less to arrive at solutions than to orient themselves

to problems. They use research to help them think about issues and define the

problematics of a situation, to gain new ideas and new perspectives. They use research

to help formulate problems and to set the agenda for future policy actions. And much of

this use is not deliberate, direct, and targeted, but a result of long-term percolation of

social science concepts, theories, and findings into the climate of informed opinion.

(137)

Importantly, Weiss’s research on research utilization shows that policy-makers are well

disposed to this “enlightenment” view of research: “usefulness” for them does not

necessarily mean that the findings are going to be immediately implemented, and

“studies that [help] people think in different and innovative ways” hold a significant

appeal for them. (138)

Research Excellence Framework 2014 (2012)

Assessment framework and guidance on submissions

Jessica Litman (2006)

Digital copyright

1. Interdisciplinary collaboration is crucial.

2. REF submissions are flexible

3. Let's be propositional

Final reflections

1. Interdisciplinary collaboration is crucial.

2. REF submissions are flexible.

3. Let's be propositional

Final reflections

1. Interdisciplinary collaboration is crucial.

2. REF submissions are flexible.

3. Let's be propositional.

Final reflections

Thank you.

aa752 @ cam.ac.uk