scholarly journals Hobbyist Game Making Between Self-Exploitation and Self-Emancipation

Author(s):  
Brendan Keogh

Critics of both the game industry specifically and the cultural industries broadly have long drawn attention to how romantic ideals around creative and passionate work are exploited by cultural firms. Long hours, periods of contingent employment, and expectations of unpaid labour are all justified as the sacrifices that cultural workers make in order to ‘do what they love’. Drawing from interviews with 200 amateur game makers, a range of complex, and sometimes contradictory justifications of self-exploitation are identified. While some game makers speak of ambitions to one day get paid to make games, many others justify keeping their creative work separate from what they do for money as a form of self-emancipation.

Organization ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 330-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrizia Zanoni ◽  
Annelies Thoelen ◽  
Sierk Ybema

Much literature on the cultural industries celebrates ethnicity as a source of creativity. Despite its positive connotation, this discourse reduces ethnic minority creatives to manifestations of a collective ethnic identity automatically leading to creativity, creating a paradox of creativity without a creative subject. Approaching creatives with an ethnic minority background as agents, this article investigates how they self-reflectively and purposely discursively construct ethnicity as a source of creativity in their identity work. Empirically, we analyze interviews with well-established creatives with an ethnic minority background active in Belgium. Most respondents construct their ethnic background as ‘hybrid’, ‘exotic’, or ‘liminal’ to craft an identity as creatives and claim creativity for their work. Only few refuse to discursively deploy ethnicity as a source of creativity, crafting more individualized identities as creatives. Our study contributes to the literature on power and ethnicity in the creative industries by documenting ethnic minority creatives’ discursive micro-struggle over what is creative work and who qualifies as a creative. Specifically, we show their counterpolitics of representation of ethnicity in the creative industries through the re-signification of the relation between the ‘west’ and the ‘other’ in less disadvantageous terms. Despite such re-signification, the continued relevance of the discourse of ethnicity as a key marker of difference suggests that ethnicity remains a principle of unequal organization of the creative industries.


Via Latgalica ◽  
2014 ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
Kristīne Macanova

<p>Vilis Dzērvinīks was born on 16 March 1959 in Kromani village, Kaunata parish, Rēzekne district in the family of a blacksmith Jānis and a primary school teacher Antoņina. He studied in Ziedoņu elementary school, Rēzekne secondary school, that was graduated in 1975, Rēzekne Secondary school No. 1, that was graduated in 1977, Riga vocational training school No. 19, that was graduated in 1978 acquiring a general building master’s qualification. From 1978 to 1980 he served in the railway troops on Baikal–Amur Mainline. In 1988 he started to acquire a correspondence course at RPI (now – Riga Technical University) faculty of general technical sciences, where he completed four courses. In 1988 he began to work in LKP (Communist Party of Latvia) committee of Ludza district as an instructor in the Culture Department, in 1990 he was nominated by LTF (The Popular Front of Latvia) and elected as the Chairman of the Board of the deputies of Ludza town. In October 1991 he was elected as the Chairman of the Board of Ludza city. Later he moved to Rēzekne and was the owner of the company “Komforts” (by Paukštė, Rancāne, Salcevica, Vilčuka 2008: 160–161).</p><p>V. Dzērvinīks’ creative work has not been studied widely and its analysis has also missed out in the context of Latvian literature, but V. Dzērvinīks’ poetry has strengthened the usage of contemporary Latgalian language, as well as contributed to the development of Latgalian literature.</p><p>The article aims to reveal the factors of inspiration and identity them in V. Dzērvinīks’ creative work, describing the author’s characteristic traits. The findings of the research are based mainly on V. Dzērvinīks’ literary heritage, as well as on newspaper and book materials about V. Dzērvinīks.</p><p>The sources of the research are V. Dzērvinīks’ three volumes of poetry: “Laimeigu īsadūmōt” (2001), “Voi moz lidmašinu kreit” (2003), “Upers” (2006). To describe the author’s inspiration factors, there were used the following exploratory methods: psychology of creative work (A. Potebņa, R. Mūks) and structural semiotics (J. Lotman, R. Veidemane).</p><p>Inspiration factors can be divided into literary and non-literary ones, but it is impossible to draw a clear boundary between them, but the concept of identity is too broad and frequently used. Human identity (-ies) is formed during the person’s lifetime and is dependent on many factors. V. Dzērvinīks’ creative work depicts powerfully his affiliation to Latgalian, i. e., in this case we can speak of V. Dzērvinīks’ ethnic identity. Ethnic identity is formed, when a person accepts ethnicity-specific traditions, based on language and culture. V. Dzērvinīks’ ethnic identity is expressed both as a political and social participation in favor of Latgale and Latgalian language, that is the language of his creative writings and the dignity of Latgalian Heritage. Latgalian authors and cultural workers, who have spiritually enriched Latgale, are Antons Kūkojs, Pēteris Jurciņš, Ingrīda Tārauda, Anna Rancāne, Andris Vējāns, Antons Slišāns, Osvalds Kravalis etc., as well as emotional kinship with places of Latgale – Rēzekne, Ludza, Idzipoles Lake, Zvirgzdenes Lake, Kromanu village etc. Latgalian is considered as the familiar, but “čiuliskais” (‘other Latvians’) as the strange one.</p><p>Identity (particularity) is the person’s self-perception, self-characterization, which consists of an individual’s behavior patterns in different situations; this is how a person perceives himself. And, if there is created the inspiration – the model of identity relationships, then the inspiration is the impulse, the identity is the result of the impulse or it is something, that is formed in the result of inspiration. V. Dzērvinīks’ sources of inspiration can be viewed from two perspectives: firstly, analyzing the author’s creative writings, revealing the hidden motives of poems, and secondly, searching for answers in V. Dzērvinīks’ interviews and articles about the author.</p><p>Politics has been a bright non-literary inspiration factor in the author’s poetry. This is reflected both in the choice of the theme of poetry and the use of sharp and stinging irony and sarcasm, sharply dividing the oppositions such as familiar– unfamiliar, authorities–people.</p><p>Love as a non-literary source of inspiration creates the atmosphere of melancholy and longing lyrics in the poetry. Often it is an intimate poetry, because it is dedicated to a particular recipient. A woman in this poetry is divinized, because she is the muse – an inexhaustible source of inspiration.</p><p>V. Dzērvinīks’ Latgalian identity is revealed as a factor of non-literary inspiration. The proof of this identity is reflected both in the lyrics I self-revelation, acknowledging, that he is Latgalian, as well as in the choice of the tone of poems, when Latgalian is the familiar one, but the rest is the strange one.</p>


Author(s):  
Avina Mendonca ◽  
Premilla D'Cruz ◽  
Ernesto Noronha

This chapter presents an international state-of-the-art literature review of abusive trolling experienced by workers in the creative and cultural industries (CCIs), bringing target experiences and organizational/occupational perspectives to the forefront and contributing to the still-evolving understanding of trolling. The abusive trolling encountered by creative and cultural workers essentially reflects workplace cyberbullying at the interpersonal level stemming from external sources, as captured by D'Cruz and Noronha's ‘varieties of workplace bullying' framework, and provides evidence for the category-based cyber abuse at the workplace. Apart from discussing the responses of creative and cultural workers to abusive trolling, interventions employed to manage trolling in the CCIs are reviewed and future research directions are forwarded.


2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (06) ◽  
pp. 1650045
Author(s):  
BJÖRN REMNELAND WIKHAMN ◽  
ALEXANDER STYHRE ◽  
JAN LJUNGBERG ◽  
ANNA MARIA SZCZEPANSKA

This paper reports an in-depth qualitative study about innovation work in the Swedish video game industry. More specifically, it focuses on how video game developers are building ambidextrous capabilities to simultaneously addressing explorative and exploitative activities. The Swedish video game industry is a particularly suitable case to analyze ambidexterity, due to it’s extreme market success and continuous ability to adapt to shifts in technologies and demands. Based on the empirical data, three ambidextrous capabilities are pointed out as particularly valuable for video game developers; (1) the ability to separate between a creative work climate and the effectiveness in project organizing; (2) the balancing of inward and outward ideation influences, and (3) the diversity in operational means and knowledge paired with shared goals and motivations, derived from the love of video games and video game development.


2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (12) ◽  
pp. 1563-1589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Alacovska

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.


Sociology ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 003803852110562
Author(s):  
Amal Jamal ◽  
Noa Lavie

This article contributes to the theorization of hope in the cultural industries in conflict zones. Although the merits of hope in explicating the behavior of creative workers in cultural production in western countries has won some attention, the literature has fallen short of addressing the impact of conflict on the meaning of hope for minority creative workers in this field. To fill this lacuna, we explore the experience of Palestinian creative workers in Israeli cultural industries, which are very functional in national identity making and branding. Our evidence is helpful in illuminating the temporal dimension of hope, as a resource and a form of passive action that takes place in the present in order to keep the horizon open for a better future, also when this future does not entail a clear referent. It also sheds light on the affinity of hope with ethical agency claiming in the cultural industries.


2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 281-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margarita I Kuleva

This article investigates the creative work that is now taking place in newly established cultural institutions in Moscow, the non-governmental museums of contemporary art (MoCAs). The exploration of creative work in Russian art centres is of particular interest because it promises to record the transition of the contemporary art market from the Soviet-era cultural monopoly to the market economy, during the real-time formation of new, informal standards of cultural production. The present article evaluates what informality means within these new standards of the organization of creative work: while standing for culture ‘in a new and innovative way’, the new art centres preserve many residues of the ‘old system’, such as the practices of blat, favour-swapping and clientelism. The article is based on an empirical study conducted in 2016 which included 25 in-depth interviews with cultural workers employed full-time, and 20 live observations in offices and exhibition areas of the art centres.


Author(s):  
Christopher Bodnar

Abstract: This article examines the intermittent cultural workers movement in France leading up to and including the 2003 strike that paralyzed the film and television production industries. Crucial to understanding the strike are the ways workers defined their labour in the cultural industries in the decade leading up to the strike. Such ideas were often at odds with government, employer, and even union understandings of labour in the sector. In using the concepts of immaterial labour and precarity to discuss the movement, the author argues that these workers movements might be understood as examples of syndicalism, enacted outside the traditional categories of the workplace and professional crafts. Résumé : Cet article examine le mouvement des intermittents du spectacle en France conduisant à et incluant la grève 2003 qui a paralysé les industries de production de film et de télévision. Pour comprendre la grève il est essentielle de comprendre la manière dont les ouvriers ont défini leur travail dans les industries culturelles dans la décennie précédant la grève. De telles idées étaient souvent en désaccord avec le gouvernement, l’employeur et même les vues des syndicats du travail dans le secteur. En employant les concepts du travail immaterial et du précarité pour discuter le mouvement, cet article soutient que ces mouvements ouvriers pourraient être compris comme exemples de syndicalisme, promulgué hors des catégories traditionnelles des métiers et de lieu de travail.


1994 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rowland Lorimer ◽  
Nancy Duxbury

Abstract: The task of this orientation paper is to connect the explorations of cultural industries that are contained in the following papers to a concern with cultural development broadly defined in Canada's opening economy. It addresses this task in Parts I and II by defining a series of connecting terms and reviewing the adequacy of the relevant literature. Part I outlines the nature of culture and cultural development, four models of cultural development, cultural development policies and programs, and cultural development and political realities. Part II discusses the economy, open and closed economies, and the likely socio-economic and socio-cultural implications of Canada's opening economy. Part III considers the nature of the infrastructure which supports cultural industries in Canada. It then turns to provisions for education in the creative arts and the status of cultural workers. Résumé: Le but de cet article d'orientation est d'associer les explorations des industries culturelles dans les articles qui suivent à un souci de développement culturel se manifestant dans l'économie canadienne en voie d'ouverture. L'article adresse cette question dans les parties I et II en définissant une série de termes pertinents, et en évaluant la documentation ayant rapport au sujet. La première partie parle brièvement de culture et de développement culturel, de quatre modèles de développement culturel, des politiques et programmes de développement culturel, et du rapport entre développement culturel et réalités politiques. La deuxième partie discute l'économie en général, les économies ouvertes et fermées, et les effets socio-économiques et culturels probables de l'ouverture de l'économie canadienne. La partie III considère la nature de l'infrastructure qui soutient les industries culturelles au Canada. Elle examine ensuite des efforts d'instaurer une éducation dans les arts et le statut de travailleurs culturels.


2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (10) ◽  
pp. 1348-1370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Casper Hoedemaekers

How can we understand contradictory identifications within work to which one is passionately attached? This article explores how seemingly competing accounts of the self at work can not only appear side by side within the self-presentation of creative workers, but also how dominant patterns within the daily socio-economic realities of creative work are reproduced through faux-contestations of them. Following Glynos and Howarth, I will argue that such transgressive notions often recall earlier historical arrangements that have been displaced by current dominant social grammars, or were vital components of the institution of current social hegemony. In a study of musicians, I analyse how alongside dominant logics of employability and virtuosity, traditional notions of artists’ craft and autonomy drive counter-identifications that allow dominant social logics to fill the gaps in the indeterminacy and ambiguity of everyday lived experience. By applying an understanding of discursive logics to creative work, this article seeks to contribute to literatures spanning work in the cultural industries, identification, affect and transgression at work, and commons and immaterial labour.


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