CS250 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Precarious Work, Precarity, Freelancers Union
13 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Critical Issues in Creative Industries: Cultural Work and Precarity
**interesting project topic
*expect exam question on precarity
→ one criticism of creative economy discourse focuses on labour - work in culture has a pretty
good reputation, presents cultural workers and artists in particular are role model workers for
today’s economy
Graph on slides of how many people are employed in different creative industries → problem of
this representation is what gets lost behind the numbers, this representation ignores the quality
of employment and the actual experience of work
“Do what you love” slogan romanticizes this creative/cultural work, social risks are sidelined
Precarity
● Experiential, social, and economic insecurities that stem from flexible work
arrangements
Models of Employment
● The standard employment relationship: refers to qualities such as a full time job,
consistent hours, stable and steadily increasing income, guaranteed continuing
employment, access to social protections, benefits, work that is performed on employers
premises, worker who is potentially a member of a union
○ Underpinned key industries in capitalist growth period in post war era
○ Assured working people incomes and a degree of economic stability
○ Not a universal model (extended disproportionately to white men)
● Has been a process of de-standardization of employment
● Non-standard employment or precarious employment: depart from standard described
above
○ Different manifestations, eg short term contract, part time jobs, seasonal work,
self employment, freelancing, interning → work gets more and more precarious
moving along this spectrum
○ ⅓ of the labour force
○ Precarious work is growing at faster rate than standardized jobs
○ Fewer than ¼ jobs on world scale fits model of standard employment
○ Precarious doesn’t represent all groups equally (women, children etc)
Precarious Employment in Creative Industries
● Project based work (eg film, website, article)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Critical issues in creative industries: cultural work and precarity. One criticism of creative economy discourse focuses on labour - work in culture has a pretty good reputation, presents cultural workers and artists in particular are role model workers for today"s economy. Graph on slides of how many people are employed in different creative industries problem of this representation is what gets lost behind the numbers, this representation ignores the quality of employment and the actual experience of work. Do what you love slogan romanticizes this creative/cultural work, social risks are sidelined. Experiential, social, and economic insecurities that stem from flexible work arrangements. Underpinned key industries in capitalist growth period in post war era. Assured working people incomes and a degree of economic stability. Not a universal model (extended disproportionately to white men) Has been a process of de-standardization of employment. Non-standard employment or precarious employment: depart from standard described above.
