8 research outputs found
Precarity, Biography and Event: Work and Time in the Cultural Industries
This article explores the temporality of work and employment in the cultural, creative and
media industries (âcultural workâ). Building on recent sociological writing on âevent-timeâ, I
explore the ways in which owner-managers of small creative firms navigate the contingent
workplace in a world of allegedly advanced âprecarityâ, yet seek also to maintain their own
stable anchorage to a linear âbiographicalâ time marked by continuity and a control of
material privilege. It is argued that understanding the political economy of time in cultural
work requires theorisation of temporal continuity as well as change, not only to avoid making
undue epochal judgments, but also to ensure continued recognition of social differences in the
ways time is being encountered and experienced at work
Creative Economies of Tomorrow? Limits to Growth and the Uncertain Future
This article contributes to emerging critiques of UK creative economy policy by challenging the unremitting celebration of âgrowthâ as the primary indicator of economic success. The ecological fallacies of âexclusiveâ growth and the social and environmental injustices that âcreative growthâ has occasioned are initially discussed â and a range of possible other understandings of growth introduced. The article concludes that under conditions of real economic stagnation and incipient environmental crisis, growth needs to be made limited, but also more fully socialised in a dual sense; made more evenly and equitably redistributed in terms of benefits and rewards, as well as re-conceived in terms that afford greater priority to non-economic values and human prosperity indicators
Being in the zone of cultural work
In the cultural industries, workers surrender themselves to ultra-intensive work
patterns in order to be recognised as properly creative subjects. In its more affirmative
versions, there is a recurrent idea that captures that special moment of creative
synthesis between the ever-striving worker and the work â the moment of
âbeing in the zoneâ. Being in the zone (hereafter BITZ) describes the ideal fusion
of the intensively productive mind and the labouring body. But what precisely is
this âzoneâ, and what is itsâ potential? As part of a wider project examining exemplary
and intensified subjectivity, in this article I examine BITZ from different
perspectives. The main aim is to contrast affirmative readings of BITZ (mostly
derived from âpositiveâ social psychology) with other, more critical perspectives
that would seek to politicise the conditions of its emergence and examine its range
of social effects. The overall aim of the article is therefore to suggest the kinds of
social and cultural frameworks that might facilitate exploration of the political
potential of BITZ in different kinds of empirical context
Living Precarious Lives? Time and Temporality in Visual Arts Careers
Although precarity has always been a characteristic feature of artistic labour, many critics now claim it is becoming more widespread and engrained. However, while the idea of precarity offers a good descriptor of the conditions of artistic labour, it also has its limits. Firstly, it tends to gloss over social differences in the distribution of precariousness. And secondly, precarity tends to imply a universal condition of âtemporal povertyâ where all social experience appears dominated by the frenetic demands of a speeded-up, unstable and fragmented social world. In this article, we show how these two omissions are interlinked and prevent a more nuanced understanding of time in artistic labour. Drawing from findings from empirical research with working visual artists in the Midlands of the UK, we propose three schematic ways of thinking about the organisation of time and temporality in routine artistic practice. We name these three temporal contexts âthe artistic careerâ; âthe time of making artâ and âthe temporality of the workâ. By researching how artists might be differently positioned in relation to time, we suggest, we not only obtain a more precise understanding of how professional artistsâ lives are organised, managed and lived, but also a more distinct understanding of precarity itself
Executive Summary. It Takes A Region To Raise An Artist
The It Takes a Region to Raise an Artist research offers the first in-depth survey of the visual arts in the East Midlands. Its purpose is to take stock of the regionâs visual arts sector, identifying its key institutions, as well as its strengths and constraints, and to discover what members of the community might need in order to fulfil their professional and artistic potential.The research was conducted through mapping existing provision and support, an online workforce survey, and conducting 15 one-to-one interviews. This new evidence will inform the development of It Takes a Region to Raise an Artist, CVAN EMâs future programme to further develop the East Midlands as a region where artists and visual arts practitioners can flourish â artistically and economically.466 individual artists and visual arts practitioners participated in an online survey with 399 meeting the inclusion criteria of: a) professional (not self-defining as an amateur); b) living/working within the East Midlands; and c) self-identifying as a member of the visual arts community.This research was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council through a 10-month Creative Economy Engagement Fellowship awarded by the Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership (M4C) in 2019. The research was undertaken by the CAMEo Research Institute for Cultural and Media Economies at the University of Leicester, in partnership with CVAN EM.Project Team:Dr Antoinette Burchill (Creative Economy Research Fellow, lead researcher, CAMEo)Professor Mark Banks (Director, CAMEo)Christina Williams (Research Assistant, CAMEo)Dr Stefano De Sabbata (Lecturer in Quantitative Geography, University of Leicester)Elizabeth Hawley-Lingham (Director, CVAN EM)</div
Workforce Diversity in the UK Screen Sector: Executive Summary
Executive Summary of the "Workforce Diversity in the UK Screen Sector" Report. The review systematically evaluates the research on workforce diversity in the United Kingdomâs film, television, animation, video games and visual effects (VFX) industries published between 2012 and 2016. It gives the most complete picture to-date of what is known about the screen sector workforce
Workforce Diversity in the UK Screen Sector
The review
systematically evaluates the research on workforce diversity in the United Kingdomâs film,
television, animation, video games and visual effects (VFX) industries published between
2012 and 2016. It gives the most complete picture to-date of what is known about the
screen sector workforce [Taken from Executive Summary
It Takes a Region to Raise an Artist: Understanding the East Midlandsâ Visual Arts Economy
The It Takes a Region to Raise an Artist research offers the
first in-depth survey of the visual arts in the East Midlands. Its purpose is
to take stock of the regionâs visual arts sector, identifying its key
institutions, as well as its strengths and constraints, and to discover what
members of the community might need in order to fulfil their professional and
artistic potential.
The research was conducted through mapping existing
provision and support, an online workforce survey, and conducting 15 one-to-one
interviews. This new evidence will inform the development of It Takes a Region
to Raise an Artist, CVAN EMâs future programme to further develop the East
Midlands as a region where artists and visual arts practitioners can flourish â
artistically and economically.
466 individual artists and visual arts practitioners
participated in an online survey with 399 meeting the inclusion criteria of: a)
professional (not self-defining as an amateur); b) living/working within the
East Midlands; and c) self-identifying as a member of the visual arts
community.
This research was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research
Council through a 10-month Creative Economy Engagement Fellowship awarded by
the Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership (M4C) in 2019. The research
was undertaken by the CAMEo Research Institute for Cultural and Media Economies
at the University of Leicester, in partnership with CVAN EM.
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