scholarly journals ‘There's no way that you get paid to do the arts’. Unpaid labour across the cultural and creative life course

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Orian Brook ◽  
Dave O'Brien ◽  
Mark Taylor

Unpaid or ‘free’ labour is an important element of how precarity has been theorized. It is also an issue that is often seen as endemic to cultural and creative work, rightly attracting a range of criticism. Questions as to the role of unpaid work, for example internships, have become central to understanding the social exclusiveness of many cultural and creative jobs. This paper develops this existing analysis by comparing and contrasting the meaning of 'free' work over the life course of a range of creative occupations, historicising the impact of unpaid labour on the creative sector and showing how it has been stratified by social class, age and career stage. The paper uses two datasets drawn from the Panic! What happened to social mobility in the arts? project, to outline the differing experiences of unpaid labour in cultural and creative occupations. By demonstrating the stratification of unpaid work as a form of precariousness in cultural jobs, along with the social distribution of benign narratives of unpaid work, the paper aims to offer new empirical evidence for those seeking to resist precarious forms of labour.

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 571-588
Author(s):  
Orian Brook ◽  
Dave O’Brien ◽  
Mark Taylor

Unpaid labour is an important element of how precarity has been theorised. It is also an issue that is often seen as endemic to cultural and creative work. Questions as to the role of unpaid work, including but not limited to unpaid internships, have become central to understanding how the social exclusiveness of many cultural and creative jobs is reinforced through their precarity. This article uses survey and interview data to outline the differing experiences of unpaid labour in cultural jobs. It contrasts the meaning of ‘free’ work over the life courses of a range of creative workers, showing how it is stratified by social class, age, and career stage. By exploring the stratification of unpaid work as a form of precariousness in cultural jobs, and of who describes their experiences of unpaid work as benign, the article offers new empirical evidence for those challenging the negative impacts of precarious working conditions.


1993 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 409-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron M. Pallas

This review examines the role of schooling in the life course of individuals, focusing on the timing and sequencing of schooling in the transition to adulthood. First, I examine conceptual issues in the study of schooling and the life course, drawing heavily on the sociological literature. I then consider the timing and sequencing of schooling in the transition to adulthood in the United States, and the consequences of variations in the timing and sequencing of schooling for adult social and economic success. I then discuss the role of social structure, norms, and institutional arrangements in the transition to adulthood, with special attention to cross-national comparisons with the U. S. and historical changes within countries. I conclude with speculations regarding trends in the role of schooling in the life course, and some directions for future research on this topic.


2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (9) ◽  
pp. 810-816 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margit Kriegbaum ◽  
Charlotte Ørsted Hougaard ◽  
Ingelise Andersen ◽  
Henrik Brønnum-Hansen ◽  
Rikke Lund

BackgroundSocial inequality in ischaemic heart disease has been related to socioeconomic position in childhood, early adulthood and late adulthood. However, the impact of relative level of accumulated income periods across adult life course and the potential gender and age differences have not been investigated. The aim was to investigate the association between relative level of accumulated income across the life course and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) from age 60+ years and to study if the associations differ by gender and in different age groups (30–39 years, 40–49 years and 50–59 years).MethodsAll Danes born 1935–1954 (N=1 235 139) were followed up in registers for incident AMI (42 669 cases). The accumulated proportional deviation from median equivalised income (APDMEI) for each gender/age/calendar year strata was constructed and divided in quartiles. The associations were analysed by means of Cox’s proportional hazard models.ResultsAmong men, those in the lowest APDMEI quartile had an HR 1.40 (1.35–1.45) of AMI compared with the highest quartile. Those in the second and third highest quartiles had HR of 1.24 (1.20–1.28) and 1.14 (1.10–1.18), respectively. Among women, the lowest quartile had an HR of 1.78 (1.69–1.88), the second 1.45 (1.37–1.53) and the third 1.19 (1.13–1.26). The social gradient was similar across the different age groups.ConclusionThe risk of AMI increased with lower levels of relative accumulated income across the life course. While men generally had a higher risk of AMI, the social gradient was steeper in women. There was no indication of a specific sensitive age period for exposure to relative level of accumulated income.


2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1854) ◽  
pp. 20170515 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. J. N. Brent ◽  
A. Ruiz-Lambides ◽  
M. L. Platt

Two decades of research suggest social relationships have a common evolutionary basis in humans and other gregarious mammals. Critical to the support of this idea is growing evidence that mortality is influenced by social integration, but when these effects emerge and how long they last is mostly unknown. Here, we report in adult female macaques that the impact of number of close adult female relatives, a proxy for social integration, on survival is not experienced uniformly across the life course; prime-aged females with a greater number of relatives had better survival outcomes compared with prime-aged females with fewer relatives, whereas no such effect was found in older females. Group size and dominance rank did not influence this result. Older females were less frequent targets of aggression, suggesting enhanced experience navigating the social landscape may obviate the need for social relationships in old age. Only one study of humans has found age-based dependency in the association between social integration and survival. Using the largest dataset for any non-human animal to date, our study extends support for the idea that sociality promotes survival and suggests strategies employed across the life course change along with experience of the social world.


2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Cieslik ◽  
Donald Simpson

This paper draws on qualitative data from three research projects that examined the impact of poor skills on the life chances of adults living in two disadvantaged areas of England. We employed the theories of Goffman and Bourdieu to document how problems with literacy have a corrosive effect on the identities of interviewees, threatening their wellbeing. Though learning difficulties occur across all social backgrounds, the poor family resources and educational opportunities of our respondents meant they struggled to overcome their literacy problems when young, thus shaping later life course transitions. Thus the origins of the shame that our adults felt about their poor skills lie in part in the distinctive classed experiences they had when young. However, the resourcefulness of our respondents meant that many had secured employment, bought homes and become parents which obscured the ongoing psychic problems that a lifetime of poor skills had bestowed on our sample. The disjuncture between the apparent material standing of our sample and the ‘hidden injuries of class’ raises questions about how we understand the operation of class across the life course and the role of literacy, learning and wellbeing in the shaping of social identities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 609-609
Author(s):  
Marja Aartsen

Abstract Longitudinal research revealed a number of micro-level drivers of loneliness, such as widowhood, exclusion from the wider society, ill health and migrant status, but a number of questions are still unanswered. For example, the prevalence of loneliness varies substantially across countries, but we do not know precisely what causes these differences. It may be due to differences in the composition of the populations, it may also be caused by macro-level drivers, or by variations in the impact of risk factors between countries. For example, losing a spouse may be loneliness provoking in countries where living with a partner is the norm, but less so in countries where living alone is more valued. Also how early childhood and events over the life course affect the level of loneliness in later life is still under-researched. The aim of our symposium is to address this gap by presenting different perspectives on loneliness and social isolation. The first presenter interprets five-year follow-up information from qualitative interviews with a life course perspective. The second investigates the role of trust as factor producing social integration, which leads to variations in loneliness. The third compares and discusses loneliness in three different continents, based on an ecological model of contexts. The forth presenter critically discusses ways to measure loneliness in societies that are culturally distinct from western cultures. The last presenter discusses the dynamics between loneliness and material deprivation in Europe. The findings provide a new lens through which we can understand loneliness and inform about effective prevention.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
R Lund ◽  
M Kriegbaum ◽  
I Andersen ◽  
C O Hougaard ◽  
H Brønnum-Hansen

Abstract Background Social inequality in ischemic heart disease has been related to socioeconomic position in childhood, early and late adulthood. However, the impact of relative level of accumulated income periods across adult life course and the potential gender and age differences has not been investigated. The aim was to investigate the association between relative level of accumulated income across the life course and Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) from age 60+ and to study if the associations differ by gender and exposure in different age groups (30-39 years, 40-49 years and 50-59 years). Methods All Danes born 1935-54 N = 1,235,139 were followed-up in registers for incident AMI (ICD8: 410, ICD10: I20, I21) from age 60+, (42,669 cases). The The Accumulated Proportional Deviation from Median Equivalized Income = APDMEI for each gender/age /calendar year strata was constructed and divided in quartiles. The analyses stratified by birth cohort included all Danes born in 1955-70 (alive and reached age 40) N = 1,144,264, 1945-64 (alive and reached age 50), N = 1,434,769, 1935-1954 (alive and reached age 60) N = 1,235,139 including outcomes in the following 10 year period. Cox’s proportional hazard models adjusted for educational level, ethnic background and birth cohort. Results Among men, those in the lowest APDMEI quartile had a HR 1.40 (1.35-1.45) of AMI compared to the highest quartile, second and third highest quartiles had HR of 1.24 (1.20-1.28) and 1.14 (1.10-1.18), respectively. Among women the lowest quartile had a HR of 1.78 (1.69-1.88), the second 1.45 (1.37-1.53) and the third 1.19 (1.13-1.26). The social gradient was similar across the different age-groups. Conclusions The risk of AMI increased with lower levels of relative accumulated income across the life course. While men generally had a higher risk of AMI, the social gradient was steeper in women. There was no indication of a specific sensitive age period for exposure to relative level of accumulated income. Key messages Accumulated low income is associated with higher AMI risk in both men and women, but with larger relative differences between high and low accumulated income in women. This study adds a new approach to the study of inequalities in AMI by integrating duration and extent of low income into a relative measure of accumulated income.


1994 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian De Vries ◽  
Rose Dalla Lana ◽  
Vilma T. Falck

This article reviews the literature on parental bereavement over the family life course drawing attention to the meaning of the loss. The conceptual framework for this article arises from the intersection of Klass and Marwit's [1] theory of parental bereavement and the theory of family development as proposed by Aldous [2] and others. The review of the literature is organized according to a series of factors, proposed by Rando [3] and others, thought to influence the parental grief experience: the untimeliness of the death; the nature and quality of the lost relationship; the role the deceased played; the characteristics of the death; and, the social support system. The role of a family developmental perspective in the understanding of parental bereavement and the recognition of the issues involved in the losses at different family stages is discussed in relation to each factor and strategies for future research are offered.


Author(s):  
Abigail A. Fagan ◽  
Kristen M. Benedini

This chapter reviews the degree to which empirical evidence demonstrates that families influence youth delinquency. Because they are most likely to be emphasized in life-course theories, this chapter focuses on parenting practices such as parental warmth and involvement, supervision and discipline of children, and child maltreatment. It also summarizes literature examining the role of children's exposure to parental violence, family criminality, and young (teenage) parents in affecting delinquency. Because life-course theories are ideally tested using longitudinal data, which allow examination of, in this case, the impact of parenting practices on children's subsequent behaviors, this chapter focuses on evidence generated from prospective studies conducted in the United States and other countries. It also discusses findings from experimental studies designed to reduce youth substance use and delinquency by improving the family environment.


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