Abstract
The relationship between a creative laborer and the work that they do in cultural or creative industries is far from straightforward. It is believed that creative workers accept challenging professional working environments, precarious working conditions, and toxic working cultures because of their love for and dedication to the creation of art. This paper investigates the intrinsic value that these workers find in their work; to recognize how self-actualization, affective motivation, and occupational commitment relate to this workforce; and to identify the working conditions present in the CCIs. This culminates in the romanticized idea that the modern artistic sacrifice is a justified balance between the pleasure of artistic creation and the pain of precarious labor in the cultural and creative industries.
Precarious Working Conditions and Affective Labor in the Cultural and Creative Industries
for Master of Science - Organizational Leadership - University of Denver University College
Written by: Daniel A. Swalec
Submission: June 3, 2022
Faculty: Al Infande, EdD
Director: Molly Smith, PhD
Dean: Michael J. McGuire, MLS
Table of Contents
Cultural and Creative Industries. 6
Precarity in the Cultural and Creative Industries. 7
Affective Motivation and Commitment 12
The Painful Side of the Axis. 12
Strengths of Intrinsic Value for Artistic Work. 19
Associative Weaknesses of Entrepreneurial and Artistic Identities. 20
Opportunities Available to Creative and Artistic Workers. 21
Threats and Challenges of Working in the CCIs. 21
Background
For decades, American society has shifted away from stable employment practices that had long been focused on employee retention and commitment in exchange for more precarious and insecure relationships with work. Broadly defined as “existential, financial, and social insecurity exacerbated by the flexibilization of labour associated with post-Fordism” (de Peuter 2014, 32) precarious work is not a new concept, and its paradigmatic employment arrangements -freelance, contract, part-time, and temporary employment relationships- have been studied in numerous industries. Understanding precarious work in relation to the passionate work done by artists and creative workers, who are typically seen as being more dedicated and committed to their craft than to a specific organization, is a unique challenge present in analysis of the cultural and creative industries.
The cultural and creative industries (CCIs) comprise organizations that create a product with cultural, artistic, or entertainment value where workers generate culturally relevant creative work while navigating a unique relationship with the balance of motivation and renumeration to the workforce wealth (Flew 2017; Hennekam and Bennett 2017, 69; Taylor 2019, 456). Gill and Pratt (2008) describe the concept of work motivated by desire as ‘passionate work’, or work that is “profoundly satisfying and pleasurable” (Gill and Pratt 2008, 15). This work relies on affective bindings between the artist -or worker- and their craft, generating a deeply emotional connection and a pathway to self-expression and self-actualization through work.
Importance of Topic
Many studies on the conditions of work in American society have been done, however, few have focused on industries reliant upon a contract-based or freelance workforce that is prevalent in the CCIs. Much of the existing work studying the general working conditions of these industries calls attention to a shortage of previous research, citing the challenges in sampling a diverse, incongruent, and vocationally transient workforce (Hennekam and Bennett 2017, 68). These challenges further emphasize the importance of continued study of the association of precarity and the subjective experiences of affective labor in these industries.
It is important to better understand the subjective relationship that workers in the CCIs have with the time they spend working, with the product they create, with the financial rewards for this work, and with the artistic satisfaction gained in this creation. This focus on the personal relationship with work is especially important in a contingent and project-based workforce; where focus on productivity and achievement frequently overshadows the resultant toll that work has on the creative workers producing it. Recognizing the many ways workers in the CCIs find value in their creative and artistic work is an important aspect of the conversation about healthy relationships and fair practices associated with work.
Problem Statement
The relationship between a laborer and the work they do is straightforward in a typical mainstream working environment, however, in the CCIs this same relationship between workers and the work they do is significantly more complex. It is widely believed that the reasons creative workers continue to willingly expose themselves to challenging working environments, precarious working conditions, and toxic working cultures -that all exist around their work- is because of a love for and dedication to the creation of ‘one’s art’. It is therefore hypothesized that an inherent reliance on self-actualization and deep association of ‘one’s work’ with ‘one’s self’ is present in workers in the cultural and creative industries, and that this value is an integral component to worker’s management of the precarious working conditions in the CCIs. This paper sets out to investigate the ways that workers in the cultural and creative industries find intrinsic value in their work; to recognize how the concepts of self-actualization, affective motivation, and occupational commitment relate to this workforce; to identify the working conditions present in the CCIs; and to explore the romanticized idea of creative artistry as a justification for precarious working conditions in the cultural and creative industries.
Approach
In conducting research on relevant working conditions in the CCIs, online databases were accessed through the University of Denver Library over the course of three semesters between March 2021 and June 2022. As the focus of this research, the topics of ‘working conditions in the performing arts industries’, ‘precarious work in the arts’, ‘affective commitment’, and ‘occupational commitment’ were explored for multiple courses, and all contributed to this analysis. The breadth of topics helped to expose the perspectives of multiple authors in a variety of academic disciplines and contributed to a diverse collection of research.
This research process began with keyword and Boolean searches consisting of the topics above and variations on them. Search strings of: ‘performing arts AND work culture’, resulted in a starting point for articles that pointed towards precarity in creative industries. This developed into the search string ‘precarious work AND performing arts’, which resulted in the discovery of Gill and Pratt’s (2008) analysis of “immaterial labor, precariousness and cultural work” and led to further searches to include the phrase ‘cultural work’.
It was this shift in focus from “performing arts” to “cultural work” that resulted in the most significant shift in the scope of research, broadening it to include a wider spectrum of work under the moniker “cultural and creative industries”. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTD) defines the CCIs as reliant upon the “cycles of creation, production and distribution of goods and services that use creativity and intellectual capital as inputs” (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development 2008, 13). This definition provided access to increased information on a wider scope of industries that share similar challenges in working conditions, compensation, and affect through work done in the artistic branch of the creative work spectrum.
Boolean search strings were again shifted to investigate the ideas of ‘affective labor’, ‘audience affirmation’, ‘bohemian AND entrepreneurial AND art’. This last string introduced the concept of art as an entrepreneurial concept, as well as art as a bohemian concept, which resulted in further analysis of the ways creative workers seek motivation and compensation for work. Throughout the research process, reference lists were mined for core sources, and as new paths in research developed, the threads developed from working conditions, affective creative labor to the audience affirmation of art, and the romanticized concept of ‘an artist’.
Throughout this process, while the greater CCIs are referenced and no industries within this diverse umbrella were intentionally secluded, the focus did include a disproportionate amount of research on industries producing performance and entertainment. Academic research on topics surrounding these industries is limited, and the subjective experiences of freelance laborers associated with artistic production are scarce. This primary focus on performance and entertainment industries was an intentional decision as research on these industries consistently highlights the immense challenges in sampling transient populations of laborers typically employed in the CCIs as well as the challenges in identifying common themes across varied contexts and geographic locations (Hennekam and Bennett 2017, 68).
Research was focused on peer-reviewed articles published after 2012. Due to the limited amount of research available and its focus on subjective elements surrounding the impact of labor on the human condition selected peer-reviewed articles and textbooks published after 2002 were also considered relevant.
Literature Review
The CCIs relies on a dedicated and committed workforce, not one that is dedicated to a specific company or to an employer, but one dedicated and committed to their craft. These qualities are not as much requirements as reflexes –innate traits inherent to the creative. This personal association with one’s work serves largely as the rationale behind the sacrifice prescribed in the romanticized idea of an artistic life.
The concept of the suffering artist sacrificing for their art is a stereotypically broad theme and an anecdote that paints a romanticized image of an artist doing whatever it takes to succeed in their artform. The dedication of the modern artist to their craft is not as storied or as cut-and-dry as the 1851 writings of Henri Murger, whose tales of Bohemian artists inspired Puccini’s 1896 opera, ‘La bohéme’. Modern creative workers endeavor to balance a similar bohemian passion for their craft with an -at times- overwhelming entrepreneurial spirit; navigating a culture where artistic creation coexists with the financial earnings it generates.
Cultural and Creative Industries
While the generally accepted definition of cultural and creative industries CCIs is broad, varied, and ever changing, it can be understood to describe segments of the global economy focused on producing a product that has cultural, artistic, or entertainment value, while creatively leveraging skill and talent to create a product that can be distributed through industrial means to generate wealth (Flew 2017; Hennekam and Bennett 2017, 69; Taylor 2019, 456). The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTD) defines the CCIs as industries that rely on “the cycles of creation, production and distribution of goods and services that use creativity and intellectual capital as inputs” (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development 2008, 13). The UNCTD further outlines that the CCIs constitute a set of knowledge-based activities, focused on but not limited to arts, potentially generating revenues from trade and intellectual property rights.
While the UNCTD does not specifically provide an exhaustive list of industries within the CCIs, they do outline commercial and non-commercial components industries of architecture and design; film, television, video, radio, and publishing; fine arts; music and the performing arts; software and computer gaming; advertising; and crafts, and describes these industries as being at the intersection of the artisan, services and industrial sectors (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, 2008). These broad and diverse industries share a reliance on not only the skill of employees to create a product but also on a workforce that directly applies their creativity to the product itself.
Precarity in the Cultural and Creative Industries
Artists and art workers throughout the CCIs encounter deep seeded cultural challenges related to the working conditions for professionals in their field. Gill and Pratt (2008, 14) describe this work as precarious and highlight some of the stable characteristics as “a preponderance of temporary, intermittent, and precarious jobs; long hours and bulimic patterns of working; the collapse or erasure of the boundaries between work and play; poor pay; high levels of mobility; passionate attachment to the work and to the identity of creative labourer [sic]”. Sandoval (2018, 1) concludes that “passion and love for one’s work often go hand in hand with rather unlovable working conditions”.
Precarity is an underlying condition of work in the CCIs and is largely a result of a reliance on freelance or contract-based workers, a focus on hiring for a limited timeframe, and the challenge that employment comes with a higher-than-average risk of loss (Hennekam and Bennett 2017, 70). As such, in a 2009 article on precariousness and insecurity, Kalleburg (2009, 17) postulated that precarious work is not novel, or restricted, but “is the dominant feature of the social relations between employers and workers in the contemporary world”; a statement echoed in much of the research done on the subject (Brook, O’Brien, and Taylor 2020; Butler and Stoyanova Russell 2018; Schediwy, Bhansing, and Loots 2018; Sandoval 2018; Hennekam and Bennett 2017; Rachel D. Higdon 2018; de Peuter 2014).
Unpaid and Insecure Labor
In an article specifically dedicated to better understanding the ways that precarity is socially stratified throughout the CCIs, the authors highlight free and unpaid labor as one of the many ways that work is often seen as exemplifying precarity; further stipulating that “working for free seems endemic to CCIs” (Brook, O’Brien, and Taylor 2020, 585). Through their research, Brook, O’Brien, and Taylor have provided support to the theoretical and empirical work of others that highlights a sense of choice and autonomy in undertaking free work. They explore this willingness to work for free by age, career status, and social class, and use this information to call for further study and the need for more empirical evidence directed toward the subjective experiences of unpaid workers in the CCIs, and how it impacts precariousness of their work (Brook, O’Brien, and Taylor 2020).
This study echoes the work done sampling UK standup comics that explains that professionals in this field regularly go through periods without compensation for their work, or frequently work at a discount rate (Butler and Stoyanova Russell 2018, 1669). Sandoval (2018) highlights this idea of working for less as specifically the result of a love for creation and discusses how this idea is “turned against itself when the subjective experience of loving one’s work is exploited by an industry that tends to compel cultural workers to give away their work for free or for little pay, to accept precarious contracts, or to work persistently long hours” (Sandoval 2018, 12). This exploitation exemplifies the “income insecurity” referenced in de Peuter’s (2014, 32) definition of precarious work in the CCIs.
Impacts of Social and Professional Networking
Greig de Peuter (2014, 32) also identifies “the blurring of work and nonwork time” as an aspect of precarity. Butler and Stoyanova Russell (2018) build on this by outlining the ways that precarity is reproduced due to a reliance on professional networking and relationships for work. They explore the bartering between performers and producers that lead to pressures and frequently results in the acceptance of poorly compensated work to manage affective relationships and ensure future work; a concept the authors also identified in jazz musicians who perform in exchange for exposure or experience (Butler and Stoyanova Russell 2018, 1669). This consequence is universally present in many industries within the CCIs, and exemplifies how “a reliance on social networks increases the prevalence of low paid work and free labour [sic] in the creative sector, such as the non-monetary incentives for creative workers” (Butler and Stoyanova Russell 2018, 1681).
The reliance on social network to secure future employment is not, however, limited to performers. In an article identifying the subjective experiences of workers in the New Zealand film industry, the authors state that freelance workers “expend considerable time and energy cultivating the intertwined social and professional networks that will enable them to secure future employment” (Rowlands and Handy 2012, 659). O’Mahony and Bechky (2006, 920) suggest that these workers also frequently rely on their social and professional networks for growth opportunities, acknowledging that opportunities for on-the-job learning and new skill development are frequently the result of connections made through these networks.
Temporary and Contingent Work
An additional condition of precarity as defined by de Peuter (2014, 32) is “uncertainty about continuing employment”. The often temporary, or project-based nature of work in much of the CCIs introduces significant levels of uncertainty. This short-term employment is typically dictated by the timeframe given to projects where the employment of personnel is strictly contingent upon the needs of the given project.
This employment model typically relies on a networked-organization of highly skilled team members that are “assembled for limited periods of time and disbanded once their part in a production is completed” (Rowlands and Handy 2012, 659). This method of constructing teams dependent on specific projects produces a working environment and culture that is inherently reliant upon long hours and bulimic work patterns, two characteristics of precarity previously identified by Gill and Pratt (2008, 14). Gill and Pratt also acknowledge that this working model introduces endemic reactions of stress and anxiety that surround this structural condition of work in which creators are judged on what they produce and are deemed “only as good as [their] last job” (Gill and Pratt 2008, 14).
In their exploration of the subjective experiences of temporary laborers in the New Zealand film industry, Rowlands and Handy (2012) describe creative work as an addiction; frequently coming at “considerable cost to participants’ health and non-work relationships” (Rowlands and Handy 2012, 668). The authors highlight the fact the responses from all participants in their study that identify film-work as an intensely involved experience that “ left them with no time or energy for other relationships” (Rowlands and Handy 2012, 668). The authors also explained that in the period after employment ended, workers described experiences similar to going through withdrawal, describing social isolation, physical and emotional exhaustion, and uncertainty about future employment opportunities.
Kalleburg (2009, 2) identifies flexibility as the primary organizational benefit of temporary employment and calls attention to growing gaps in earnings as a secondary result. Rowlands and Handy (2012) highlight the organizational benefit of temporarily employing workers as limiting financial liabilities related to creating a commercial project. The sociological result of the reliance on temporary and provisional employment practices is concerning as the challenges typically shouldered by the organization are offloaded as stress, anxiety, and uncertainty on the laborers individually (Rowlands and Handy 2012; Kalleberg 2009, 2).
Butler and Stoyanova Russell (2018, 1669) contend that the flexibility of temporary or contingent work can also provide a level of autonomy and appeal for the worker. In contrast to the research of Rowlands and Handy that pointed to withdrawal symptoms in film workers during the time between projects, Higdon and Chapman (2020, 273) suggest that the time between projects can be beneficial, specifically for workers employed as actors. They describe this time as allowing the actors time away from their craft to recover after having “thrown themselves, existentially, into the task of being an actor” (Rachel Delta Higdon and Chapman 2020, 273). These two examples highlight both positive and negative impacts of flexibility on the worker.
Organizational Impacts of Contingent Labor
While the challenges of precarious labor fall disproportionately on the worker, there are aspects of this reliance on a contingent workforce that also impact the employing organizations. A 2003 article analyzing the precarious environments around film production highlights one organizational challenge that outside of the CCIs would be a catastrophic omission but is a longstanding tradition that is celebrated within the niche industry of film production. The idea of ‘swift trust’, a concept that instills initial trust in a team simply based on a person’s existence in the team, is frequently relied upon in the film production industry to make up for the “limitations of working in the organizational equivalent of a one night stand” (Bechky 2006, 3). This embrace of ‘swift trust’ instead of typical team building practices is a side effect of the condensed schedules present in project-based work and highlights the unwillingness of organizations to invest in the development of its workforce and is the direct result of the reliance on temporary working organizations and contingent workforces.
Affective Motivation and Commitment
Artists and workers in the CCIs hold a strong, personal dedication to their work; even considering the precarious working conditions and sub-par compensation present in many of these industries (Gill and Pratt 2008; Taylor 2012; Brook, O’Brien, and Taylor 2020; Butler and Stoyanova Russell 2018; Rowlands and Handy 2012). This devotion is inherently attached to a creative worker’s identity more than it is to their profession and is present from the developmental stages through the end of a lengthy career. It is this commitment of these workers to their craft that generates an artistic -or Bohemian- identity, expressing “freedom, joy, and creativity; all attributes that are commonly associated with leisure time and not so much with labour [sic]” (Schediwy, Bhansing, and Loots 2018, 178).
The affective association between a creative worker and their craft is identical in kind to that between an artist and their art. The environment for professional creation exists in precarity, imposing stress, anxiety, and pressure due to the working culture and conditions in the CCIs. However, the opportunity for creation also allows for the opportunity for potential self-actualization instead of just achievement and experience (Taylor 2012, 55). This duality is an idea that Angela McRobbie (2004) explains in her definition of the ‘pleasure-pain axis’.
The Painful Side of the Axis
When considering the painful side of McRobbie’s (2004) axis, it is easy to look at previous sections of this analysis that discuss precarity, or to look at any of the source material and see a consistent reference to challenging working conditions and uncertainty within employment in the CCIs. Butler and Stoyanova (2018) built upon this concept by suggesting that stress, anxiety, uncertainty, and general discomfort that are associated with the precarious working conditions in the CCIs, “may be mitigated – to a greater or lesser extent – by engaging in creatively fulfilling and intrinsically meaningful work” (Butler and Stoyanova Russell 2018, 1671).
This idea proposes that workers continue to pursue their craft, even when the working conditions they are surrounded by impose stress, anxiety, and uncertainty. This concept, and pervasive nature of precariousness led McRobbie (2016) to associate the term ‘pathologies of precariousness’; explaining the effect of the consistent ebb and flow of work as vacillating between exhilarating and emotionally exhausting, between all-consuming and isolating (Butler and Stoyanova Russell 2018). It expresses the circumstance of precarity, and the predisposition of the workforce to accept the challenges presented.
Analyzing precarity from a pathological viewpoint introduces a structural component responsible for the continued proliferation of this challenging, and at times harmful side of the axis. In a 2020 study by Brook, O’Brien, and Taylor, the authors focused on identifying stratification of precarity based on age, class, and career stage, the premise of the study relies on precarity being “endemic to cultural work” (Brook, O’Brien, and Taylor 2020, 571). Similarly, in their study on standup comics, Butler and Stoyanova Russell begin by acknowledging that professional work in this field requires both sides of the pleasure-pain axis, identifying it as “a labor of love” and specifying both the opportunities for self-expression and the exploitative working conditions. In yet another example, Rowlands and Handy (2012) call attention to the addictive environment visible through the subjective experiences of New Zealand film production workers; specifically referencing that the “emotional rewards of employment are interspersed with the anxieties of repeated unemployment”(Rowlands and Handy 2012, 657).
On the other side of the pleasure-pain axis, Gill and Pratt (2008) suggest that workers associate their work as “profoundly satisfying and intensely pleasurable”(Gill and Pratt 2008, 15), and in turn identify a consistent result of research on work in the CCIs. It is this love of creation and passion for their work that is consistently referenced in interviews with workers, and is the basis of the idea that you must love what you do to succeed (Butler and Stoyanova Russell 2018; Brook, O’Brien, and Taylor 2020; Higdon 2018; Higdon and Chapman 2020; Hennekam and Bennett 2017; Rowlands and Handy 2012; Taylor 2012; Gill and Pratt 2008).
Passionate Cultural Work
In additional research by McRobbie (2016) into the positive side of the pleasure-pain axis she identified points to the concept she deems ‘passionate work’. Within this concept, work holds more meaning to the laborer than is typical, resulting in what Gill and Pratt (2008, 15) identify as “deep attachment, affective bindings, and the idea of self-expression and self-actualization through work”. Additionally, Sandoval (2018) describes passionate work as “not merely a choice but interestingly a requirement for succeeding in the competitive field of cultural work” (Sandoval 2018, 8).
Passionate work introduces a means that provides workers justification to continue creative pursuit in a complex and challenging working environment. This idea of self-expression and self-actualization through work is a commonly recognized result in creative fields. This serves as a driving force in the exchange between precariousness and the pleasure of creation (Butler and Stoyanova Russell 2018; Gill and Pratt 2008; Brook, O’Brien, and Taylor 2020).
In one final example that presents both sides of the pleasure-pain axis and provides the opportunity to recognize some complexities of passionate work, Abigail Levine (2013) discusses her work as ‘a thing’ in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. She highlights the separation between her experience as a museum employee, her focus on the creative growth, her own thankfulness for steady employment, and the privilege of working with the headline artist. She focuses on her pleasure in performing until noticing the hundreds of thousands of attendees, each paying admission. It was this moment when feelings of gratitude began to shift with those of exploitation (Levine 2013, 295).
Levine emphasizes how quicky “the gap between what we were doing as museum employees and what we felt like we were doing as [the artist’s] performers became increasingly clear” (Levine 2013, 295). This was the moment when she recognizes her own reliance on affective commitment to her craft. The passionate work she and her colleagues embarked on is exemplified through their focus on self-actualization and on the artistic value of the creation. Only in realization of the extreme popularity and profitability of the work do the performers realize that this artwork exists in a commercially produced and mass consumed artwork; that as artists, they are performing a service for an audience.
Solution
The challenges around the culture of work in the CCIs and the reality that artistic creation is frequently prioritized above all else by the workers in these fields creates a unique and complex concept to study. Through the research presented, it is apparent that precarity is not only a regular occurrence but a stable aspect of the working culture in the CCIs. The reliance on temporary and intermittent employment, long hours and bulimic periods of work, and the lack of separation between time at work and time away, are all challenges inherent to the precarious working environments in the CCIs (Gill and Pratt 2008, 14).
It is also evident that the frequent challenges presented by this precarious working environment result in significant anxiety and stress for the workers; presenting a threat to the creative worker’s entrepreneurial identity and to the pecuniary rewards they rely on to earn sustainable living from their work (Schediwy, Bhansing, and Loots 2018, 179). Beyond the entrepreneurial identity is an equally present desire to produce creative, successful, and personally meaningful work, that invigorates an artistic identity and achieves added value, purpose, and success through their desire to create. While success does look different for each worker, it typically balances somewhere between these entrepreneurial and artistic identities.
Research has been done on precarity, and the entrepreneurial and artistic identities, however, it is the work of Angela McRobbie (2004; 2016) that codifies these challenges into concepts that directly associate the pleasure and pain of work in the CCIs. Through her work, specifically her introduction of the pleasure-pain axis (2004) and the concept of passionate work (2016), it is possible to better understand the ways creative workers perceive individualized values in the work they create, their commitment to their craft, and their affective response to work.
It seems apparent that the pleasure-pain axis and the intrinsic value of passionate work are not new notions but newly defined concepts. McRobbie has succeeded in organizing the feelings of creative workers and their battle between various ideas of successfulness into a more understandable acknowledgement of desire and helps to recognize the purposeful motivation behind their work. It is through this concept that it is possible to equate the modern worker in the CCIs with the romanticized interpretation of the Bohemian artist of the 1850s.
The socially unconventional ‘starving artist’ who was historically characterized as willing to sacrifice of themselves for the creation of their art seems very similar to workers in the CCIs. Both express a willingness to navigate significant challenges in exchange for the opportunity to create. Through McRobbie’s concepts and the research informing them, the romanticized idea of creative artistry combatting precariousness seem as true in modern times as it was in the early 19th century. While the modern details of in this comparison are significantly different, the concept of both the pleasure-pain axis and that of passionate work seem equally applicable to the creative-minded worker, regardless of the time-period.
This paper has investigated the ways that workers in the cultural and creative industries find intrinsic value in their work and has found significant research to determine that workers in these fields require more than simple compensation for their work. While modern creative workers desire -and deserve- fair compensation for their work done, they also desire the opportunity to seek self-actualization in the act of creation through their work. Through this research, it is apparent that multiple parallel forms of compensation exist to the creative worker. These modes are both innately personal to the creator and affectively inherent in their work, acting as both fuel for commitment to their craft and justification for tolerating the challenging working conditions of their industry. It has also been unequivocally determined that the working conditions within the CCIs are precarious by nature, and that the cultural acceptance and continued proliferation of the policies leading to temporary and intermittent employment, long hours and bulimic periods of work, and the lack of separation between time at work and time away, can be detrimental to the health and safety of workers, and in turn the organizations that exist within the CCIs. Finally, it is understood that the concepts surrounding the sacrifice of the artist or creative worker for their craft are not new and can be identified in romanticized versions of the Bohemian artists of the early 19th century, the modern introduction of industry into the relationship between the creative worker and their craft, creates a unique relationship that remains worthy of continued study.
As a result of these determinations, and in consideration of the historic willingness of artists or creative workers to sacrifice of themselves for their work, it is possible to see a correlation between the willingness to tolerate precarious working environments in exchange for the opportunity to seek intrinsic rewards associated with creation.
Discussion
The core objectives of this analysis were initially presented as investigating the intrinsic value workers in the cultural and creative industries find through their work; recognizing how the concepts of self-actualization, affective motivation, and occupational commitment relate to this workforce; identifying the precarious working conditions within the CCIs; and exploring the romanticized idea of creative artistry as a justification to combat precarious working conditions in the cultural and creative industries. The research around these objectives have resulted the core idea that workers in the cultural and creative industries see intrinsic value in their work, and it is this value that justifies the acceptance of precarious working conditions in the CCIs. It is imperative to understand how impactful the affective commitment that this workforce has to their craft and how this commitment can be applied to the romanticized idea of creative artistry as a justification to combat precarious working conditions. As a result, this discussion will bring clarity to the core idea equating the inherent value a worker places on their craft with their willingness to endure challenges in creating it.
Strengths of Intrinsic Value for Artistic Work
Workers engaged in creative or artistic work have an innate appreciation for the core functions of creative work. Taylor and Littleton (2008) acknowledge that an innate appreciation of artistic work affords artists what Howard S. Becker referenced as a special status, or ‘rare powers’ that afford them the ability to stand in reciprocal relation to their work (Taylor and Littleton 2008, 275–76). It is this association and passionate attachment to their work and the implicit connection between the worker and their craft that results in the intrinsic value that a creative worker places on their work (Brook, O’Brien, and Taylor 2020; Butler and Stoyanova Russell 2018; Gill and Pratt 2008; Taylor and Littleton 2008).
There is great personal strength shown in the creative worker’s association of value with work. Understanding that their personal relationship with the work they do likely began through childhood perceptions of destiny and necessity in practicing their craft helps to recognize the deep emotional ties to an artist’s identity, and not just their occupation (Schediwy, Bhansing, and Loots 2018, 178). While the professional creative worker certainly fosters both a desire to earn a sustainable income from their work -a desire that satisfies to their entrepreneurial identity- they also place extreme value in to creating successful and personally meaningful work -a desire that feeds their artistic identity. It is in this latter identity, which seemingly can exist separate from the entrepreneurial responsibilities, where the creative worker stands apart from the rest.
Although, the goal for many working in creative and artistic industries is the desire to earn a sustainable income from their creative skills and talents, many workers also see their work as “as a means to achieve self-fulfillment and personal development rather than a source of income” (Schediwy, Bhansing, and Loots 2018, 178). This idea is easily associated with the bohemian ideas of the sacrifice for artistry and creation and creates a subjective reality around the idea of success. It is possible, although likely not preferable, for a creative worker to feel successful in their creation without association to the entrepreneurial identity. As a result, it is a strength of the creative worker to achieve success based on the subjective assignment of personal creative or artistic fulfillment as a result of the intrinsic value they place on their work (Schediwy, Bhansing, and Loots 2018, 178).
Associative Weaknesses of Entrepreneurial and Artistic Identities
If the strength of workers engaged in creative or artistic work lie in the intrinsic value placed on their work on subjective artistic success through an artistic identity, weakness exists when the creative worker’s focus is solely on their entrepreneurial identity. Schediwy, Bhansing, and Loots (2018) identify this as being the underlying factor responsible for not subjectively associating artistic achievement as means for success. They explain that the entrepreneurial identity of a creative worker can be responsible for a worker’s reluctance to seek additional employment that is unrelated to the artistic creation of their craft (Schediwy, Bhansing, and Loots 2018, 179). This unwillingness of a creative worker to seek supplemental work separate from their field as a means of supporting their creative work and therefore satisfying their artistic identity can be considered a weakness in the ability to gain intrinsic value through work in the CCIs.
Opportunities Available to Creative and Artistic Workers
It is an understatement to suggest that the opportunities presented to workers in the CCIs are enticing. The opportunity for creative workers to achieve both artistic and entrepreneurial success through professional work is frequently considered to be highly rewarding and can be seen at times as even being glamorous and exciting (Rowlands and Handy 2012). Research has pointed to the desire of workers in the CCIs to continue creating as a means of employment, citing their desire to for extrinsic success in their career through their entrepreneurial identity and intrinsic rewards found through accessing their creative or artistic identity (Schediwy, Bhansing, and Loots 2018, 179). Those who can succeed in obtaining paid work in the CCIs are able to engage in both entrepreneurial and artistic identities and are able to take full advantage of this opportunity for success.
Threats and Challenges of Working in the CCIs
Unfortunately, the threats and challenges of working in the precarious conditions that exist within the CCIs are more extensive than the opportunities, and the opportunity presented by artistic and entrepreneurial success are significantly overshadowed. The challenging working conditions have been the topic of concern and analysis by many writers for decades (Rowlands and Handy 2012). These conditions, consisting of “temporary, intermittent, and precarious jobs; long hours and bulimic patterns of working; the collapse or erasure of the boundaries between work and play; poor pay; high levels of mobility; passionate attachment to the work and to the identity of creative labourer [sic]” (Gill and Pratt 2008, 14) are each individually challenging, but combine to form the largest threat to workers in the CCIs.
In addition to the underlying conditions of work being precarious, their acceptance of these conditions introduces a secondary threat into consideration. Rowlands and Handy suggest that when workers find the intrinsic benefits of their work most rewarding, the precarity of the working culture may create addictive working environments that encourages the worker to build an unhealthy focus on the working environment and fracture many psychological ties to the outside world (Rowlands and Handy 2012, 677). Furthermore, the authors also suggest that exploitation of the desire for these creatively intrinsic rewards may provide “encouragement towards self-exploitation of these creative workers” (Rowlands and Handy 2012, 677). It is through the potential for coercive self-exploitation, psychological disconnection from the world outside of work, the general uncertainty of future work, and other specific but serious challenges presented, that the culture of precarious work in the CCIs can be threatening to the worker’s desire and ability to create professionally.
Recommendations
It is understood through research that workers in the CCIs seek both pecuniary rewards for their work and intrinsic rewards for creative and artistic expression. It is also understood that work within the CCIs is inherently precarious because of the temporary nature and bulimic patterns of work, the lacking boundaries between work and play, the low or non-existent compensation for work, and the deep attachment workers feel to their work. Finally, it is known that workers within the CCIs have individualized experiences that are based on personal goals, which segment of the CCIs they work, their geographic location, demographic information, and socio-economic class. In correlating these statements and the research gathered, it is possible to determine that workers in the CCIs leverage the positive inherent value gained from doing creative work, as a means of offsetting the negatively precarious working conditions that exist within the CCIs.
This correlation, however, is only presumptive. It is recommended that this topic is studied further and studied specifically within various segments of the CCIs and throughout different demographic groups to determine both the consciousness of the choice in this presumed relationship between creative identity and precarity and the specific working conditions that present the most severe problems. Understanding the ways that workers make these decisions to tolerate negative working conditions will help to inform future working practices and build the impetus to change the most severe.
Conclusion
Throughout this research the focus on negative aspects of work in the cultural and creative industries has seemed to outweigh the positive. The concerns presented through the working conditions combined into an overwhelming and exhaustive list of challenges ranging from likely unhealthy to outright dangerous. It is easy to see the potential for exploitation and manipulation of workers under these conditions and within the culture that perpetuates them.
The reality of work in the CCIs seems to be more complicated than just acknowledging the challenges and faults of the culture within the industry. The desire for a space to create and the ability for workers to earn their living doing the labor they love seems like the opportunity of a lifetime to many workers, even after acknowledging the costly toll to do so. It is the existence of a blind spot that forms around many of these workers -who are so engaged in creating and so pleased by the intrinsic artistic achievements- that prevents them from seeing the true costs of their success.
This analysis is a beginning to the difficult work ahead in analyzing the stresses and anxieties caused by the working culture throughout many of the CCIs. It is only through larger, in-depth, and first-hand studies of workers in these industries that those involved can understand the harm being done as the result of a culture reliant upon precarious working conditions in the CCIs. And it will only be through more detailed study and a better understanding of the true challenges being faced by the workforce that the physical and psychological health and safety of these creative workers can be better protected.
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