The Wageless Life of Creative Workers: Alternative Economic Practices, Commoning and Consumption Work in Cultural Labour

Sociology ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 003803852110560
Author(s):  
Ana Alacovska
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
Work Practices ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Economic Practices ◽  
Creative Workers ◽  
Sociological Studies ◽  
Making Art

This article argues the importance of considering wageless life and related post-wage regimes of work in the study of creative and cultural labour. Such consideration is necessary to understand how creative workers persevere in their profession, dedicating substantial amounts of time to making art in spite of prolonged precarity and low, irregular or non-existent wages. The article revisits sociological studies of creative work and finds that although such studies have tended to neglect the wageless life of creative workers they have nonetheless implicitly identified a range of alternative economic activities and ‘consumption work’ practices that go beyond wages and formal contractual employment. These activities include everyday strategies for ‘getting by’, such as barter, self-provisioning, commoning, thrift and downshifting. A systematic and sustained focus on wageless life that treats work as deeply enmeshed in everyday life is needed in order to make manifest the hidden politics of contemporary post-waged creative work.

Informal creative labour practices: A relational work perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (12) ◽  
pp. 1563-1589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Alacovska
Keyword(s):  
Interpersonal Relations ◽  
Interpersonal Relationship ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Voluntary Work ◽  
Informal Governance ◽  
Relational Work ◽  
Unpaid Labour ◽  
Informal Labour ◽  
Creative Workers

The informal nature of creative work is routinely acknowledged in the studies of creative labour. However, informality of creative work has been so far treated dualistically: firstly, as the informal governance of creative labour markets and secondly, as the ever-increasing informalization of creative workplaces. In contrast, this article argues for the importance of focusing on informal labour practices as infused in relational contexts so as to understand how creative workers uphold career sustainability and cope daily with contingent, insecure and underpaid work. Drawing on the relational work perspective from economic sociology, I contend that creative workers’ informal labour practices and economic activities are constituted by the meanings and quality workers attach to interpersonal relations. The more socially and spatially intimate and closer the interpersonal relationship, the less the economic benefit. The more socially and spatially distant the relationship, the greater the pecuniary motivation. The article maps relational work dynamics in: (1) informal paid labour practices, comprising work under-the-radar of state authorities, such as cash-in-hand work including online crowd-work, tips-based work, and paid favours and (2) informal unpaid labour practices, practices happening in webs of reciprocity that are not directly compensated with money, such as barter, favour-swapping and voluntary work.

‘Keep hoping, keep going’: Towards a hopeful sociology of creative work

2018 ◽  
Vol 67 (5) ◽  
pp. 1118-1136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Alacovska
Keyword(s):  
Future Orientation ◽  
Causal Link ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
East Europe ◽  
South East Europe ◽  
Analytical Potential ◽  
Labour Practice ◽  
Informal Labour ◽  
Creative Workers ◽  
Sociological Studies

This article explores the relationship between future-oriented temporality and precarity in creative work. Existing sociological studies implicitly assume an unproblematic causal link between creative workers’ future-orientation and their precarity, subjugation and exploitation. This article problematizes this link and offers a more nuanced reassessment of creative work’s futurity by arguing for the analytical potential of the notion of hope in gaining a better understanding of creative workers’ hopeful – affective, practical and moral – responses to conditions of protracted precarity. Building on theories of hope, the article conceptualizes hope both as an existential affective stance and an active moral practice oriented towards the present – an orientation that enables workers to keep going in spite of economic hardship and job uncertainty. From ‘an atypical case’ study of creative work in South-East Europe, hope emerges empirically as the central quotidian practice of coping with precarity. Three practices of hope are discussed: (1) hope as therapeutic practice; (2) hope as informal labour practice; and (3) hope as socially engaged arts practice. In so doing, the article explores the possibilities of practising ‘a hopeful sociology’ of creative work.

A Heterodox Re-Reading of Creative Work: The Diverse Economies of Danish Visual Artists

2020 ◽  
pp. 095001702095832
Author(s):  
Ana Alacovska ◽  
Trine Bille
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Method ◽  
Mixed Method Study ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
Mutual Aid ◽  
Visual Artists ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Diverse Economies ◽  
Everyday Practices ◽  
Economic Practices ◽  
Artistic Work

This article investigates the diverse and heterodox array of labour practices and economic activities in artistic work. Existing studies contend that artistic income is highly skewed, with the majority of artists living in poverty, and that artistic work is intermittent, project-by-project based and precarious, with artists juggling multiple jobs. However, these prevalent perspectives typically foreground only formal contractual employment while neglecting the variegated range of informal, alternative and relational economic practices. Building on a mixed method study of Danish visual artists’ livelihoods and drawing on the total social organization of labour perspective, the article maps a diverse spectrum of labour practices ranging from formal paid/unpaid work to informal cash-in-hand work and non-monetized barter exchanges, to wholly non-commodified everyday practices of mutual aid and favour-swapping, as well as ‘consumption work’ such as thrift and self-provisioning. Heterodox economic practices are the primary mode by which artists cope with and manage precarious artistic livelihoods.

scholarly journals ‘Culture is a Meritocracy’: Why Creative Workers’ Attitudes may Reinforce Social Inequality

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 27-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Taylor ◽  
Dave O’Brien
Keyword(s):  
Public Interest ◽  
Creative Class ◽  
Web Survey ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
Structural Inequality ◽  
Creative Workers ◽  
Components Analysis ◽  
Cultural Sector ◽  
British Research ◽  
Unique Dataset

The attitudes and values of cultural and creative workers are an important element of explaining current academic interest in inequality and culture. To date, quantitative approaches to this element of cultural and creative inequality have been overlooked, particularly in British research. This article investigates the attitudes of those working in creative jobs with a unique dataset: a web survey of creative workers’ attitudes (n = 2487). Using principal components analysis and regression, we have three main findings. First, in contrast to Richard Florida’s thesis on the attitudes and values of ‘the creative class’, our respondents’ attitudes were no more meritocratic than those of the general population. Second, those with the strongest belief in meritocracy in the sector are those in the most privileged positions, specifically those are best rewarded by the sector. Third, our research provides support for existing qualitative research on attitudes in the cultural sector, in which the worst rewarded workers are most aware of structural inequality. We conclude that the attitudes held by creative workers, and who holds which attitudes, make it unlikely that access to the sector and trajectories of individual progression within the sector will change. These findings also have important implications for current public interest in whether access to creative work is limited to those from privileged backgrounds.

Race in Everyday Life

2019 ◽  
pp. 115-159
Author(s):  
Henrice Altink
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Private Sphere ◽  
Colour Blindness ◽  
Racial Incidents ◽  
Sociological Studies

This chapter explores the power of race and colour in everyday life. Relying heavily on contemporary anthropological and sociological studies, it first of all explores the socialisation of Jamaican children into the meanings of race and the rule not to talk about race. It then moves on to assess how as grown-ups, they navigated race and colour in the private sphere of the home and in hotels, churches and other semi-private spheres. And finally, through an examination of several racial incidents – events that sparked an island-wide discussion about race – , it explores how those socialised into the rule not to talk about race, talked about race. In doing so, the chapter conveys the coexistence of colour consciousness and colour blindness.

scholarly journals Making degrowth locally meaningful: the case of the Faroese grindadráp

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ragnheiður Bogadóttir ◽  
Elisabeth Skarðhamar Olsen
Keyword(s):  
Food System ◽  
Faroe Islands ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Economic Strategies ◽  
Economic Practices ◽  
The World ◽  
Global Food System ◽  
Food Procurement ◽  
Relational Ethic ◽  
Global Food

Abstract While the doxa of growth continues to dominate mainstream understandings of what constitutes a healthy economy, the concept and agenda of degrowth beg for theorization about how culture and power render some economic strategies more viable and meaningful than others. In this article we discuss the highly contested practice of Faroese pilot whaling, grindadráp. Through autoethnographic methods we identify and analyze forces challenging this deep-rooted practice, both within and outside Faroese society. Faroese resistance to abandon the practice, expressed in local pro-whaling narratives suggest that, in the struggle to legitimize the grindadráp as a sustainable and eco-friendly practice, Faroese people are simultaneously deconstructing central tenets of the global food system, and comparing grindadráp favorably with the injustices and cruelties of industrial food procurement. In this sense, we argue that the grindadráp not only constitutes a locally meaningful alternative to growth-dominated economic practices, but may also, in this capacity, inspire Faroese people to reduce engagement with economic activities that negatively impact the environment and perpetuate social and environmental injustices in the world. Keywords: Degrowth, whaling, Faroe Islands, relational ethic, noncapitalism.

Creating Creative Identities in Organizations

2020 ◽  
pp. 668-682
Author(s):  
Iva Josefsson
Keyword(s):  
Creative Work ◽  
Work Organizations ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Creative Workers ◽  
Work And Life

Creative workers, fuelled by the desire to be and be seen as creative, have come to epitomize some of the most intense identity struggles of any group of employees in modern times. This chapter begins by reviewing the significance of identity for creative work and by arguing for its heightened salience given its importance in both the processes and outcomes of creative work. Organizations play a role in inspiring and framing the creative identities that people construct. Echoing many broader discourses of creative work, organizations capitalize on these to delimit people’s aspired-to identities. While official discourses of autonomy and creativity offer the promise of self-making, they can also be understood as softer forms of control in organizations that aim to produce an ideal subject who is self-disciplining and invests him/herself in work. This chapter concludes by arguing that creative identities are often problematic as they can blur the lines between individual and organization, work and life, and further encourage (self-)exploitation of workers in potentially harmful ways that demand further research.

scholarly journals Means of Transport by Udehe: The Transformation and Survival of Material Culture

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-57
Author(s):  
Vladimir Degtiar
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Water Transport ◽  
Far East ◽  
Far East Of Russia ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
The Far East ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Hunting And Fishing

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to describe how the material culture of the indigenous hunters and fishermen of the Udehe in the Far East of Russia have been transformed by outside influence, from an autonomous and already sophisticated culture to a dependent and modernized one. The discussion centres around the means of water transport, two kinds of dugout boats (the bat and omorochka) because they were and still are essential for hunting and fishing, which are the main economic activities of Udehe. The author demonstrates how this one part of material culture has changed in manufacturing and use, and what has changed in the everyday life due to this transformation.

scholarly journals Acceleration of Mega Merger of SOE Sharia Banks in Indonesia through Revitalization of Sharia Economic Law in Islamic Boarding Schools

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 38
Author(s):  
Ferry Jie ◽  
Harisah Harisah ◽  
Zubaidi Sulaiman
Keyword(s):  
Science Curriculum ◽  
Boarding Schools ◽  
Microfinance Institutions ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Economic Law ◽  
Direct Observations ◽  
Economic Practices ◽  
Employment Programs ◽  
Islamic Economic ◽  
And Training

Generally, we can see that law is all rules of behavior in norms regulating orders among societies. Likewise, sharia economic law regulates policies of the community in economic activities, and the application of this rule in Indonesia can be studied through Islamic boarding schools as a place for Islamic scientific education. The condition of this Indonesian pesantren is no longer only studying classical sciences. Still, also it has developed by studying modern sciences such as studies in several Indonesian pesantren which have revitalized sharia economic law as a study, which is included in the science curriculum and equipped with institutional facilities to support learning in providing an overview of sharia economic practices. Accordingly, the program has become one of the instruments for accelerating the mega-merger of Islamic banks. This research used qualitative methods with data collection through interviews and direct observations in the field. This study found that Islamic boarding schools in Indonesia have provided Islamic economic, scientific facilities, and Islamic microfinance institutions to support learning Islamic economic law to introduce knowledge and provision of Islamic economic practices so that students could apply Islamic economic values. Meanwhile, the existing programs in Indonesian Islamic boarding schools produced reliable students in the sharia economy to support the acceleration of the Islamic Bank's mega-merger through several programs such as the study of muamalah fiqh books, in collaboration with education and training held by financial institutions owned by Islamic boarding schools as well as employment programs for alumni of pesantren and guiding Islamic banking.

scholarly journals Detrimental Collaborations in Creative Work: Evidence from Economics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyvan Vakili ◽  
Florenta Teodoridis ◽  
Michaël Bikard
Keyword(s):  
Collaborative Work ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
Output Quality ◽  
Creative Workers

Prior research on collaboration and creativity often assumes that individuals choose to collaborate to improve the quality of their output. Given the growing role of collaboration and autonomous teams in creative work, the validity of this assumption has important implications for organizations. We argue that in the presence of a collaboration credit premium—when the sum of fractional credit allocated to each collaborator exceeds 100%—individuals may choose to work together even when the project output is of low quality or when its prospects are diminished by collaborating. We test our argument on a sample of economists in academia using the norm of alphabetical ordering of authors’ surnames on academic articles as an instrument for selection into collaboration. This norm means that economists whose family name begins with a letter from the beginning of the alphabet receive systematically more credit for collaborative work than economists whose family name begins with a letter from the end of the alphabet. We show that, in the presence of a credit premium, individuals may choose to collaborate, even if this choice decreases output quality. Thus, collaboration can create a misalignment between the incentives of creative workers and the prospects of the project.

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