[csaa-forum] The Future of Cultural Work: Call for papers

[Melissa Gregg]

                           The Future of Cultural Work
Organisers: Mark Banks and Stephanie Taylor (CRESC, Open University)
Rosalind Gill and Andy Pratt
(Centre for Culture, Media and Creative Industries Research,
King¹s College, London)

Date: Monday 7 June 2010
Venue: Open University London Regional Centre, Camden.
 
Call for Papers


As Œcreativity¹ and Œcreative work¹ have become buzzwords for progress, so
the cultural and creative industries have become an instrumental feature of
national economic and cultural policies. Most recently, cultural, artistic
and creative labour has been identified as leading the transition to a more
fluid, affective and converged Œinnovation¹ economy, where cultural work is
valued more for its ability to diffuse ideas and Œcreative energies¹ than
for its intrinsic value, or for its (potentially) socially transformative or
redemptive potential. Firms, national governments, promoters of Œcreative
cities¹ and development agencies alike have offered a plethora of
interventions designed to stimulate growth through organizing and managing
creative and cultural work (see ŒCreative Britain¹ for example). Such a
process has rested on the assumption of a frictionless and mutually
beneficial relationship between capital and labour, and culture and
economics; where distinctive forms of artistic and cultural production and
economic and governmental priorities appear to co-prosper in harmonious
union. However, while the specific qualities of cultural and creative work
are now assumed to be progressive and beneficial to both capital and labour,
recent events cast doubt on the status of creativity as (in Andrew Ross¹s
words) Œthe oil of the 21st century¹. The instrumental gearing of culture to
innovation policy, the consolidation of Œfree¹, Œco-creative¹  - but
precarious, individualized and poorly-remunerated - work in media, cultural
and arts organizations, a deep-rooted global recession that has eviscerated
opportunities for cultural labour, and in the UK a general election that may
alter fundamentally the creative industries script, has markedly transformed
this discursive and material field. Here, the benign union of culture and
economics, the prospects for rewarding and meaningful cultural industry
employment, and the extent to which creative/cultural work could or should
meet the demands of economic restructuring and governments, come once again
under scrutiny. This conference therefore asks: What is the status of
creativity and creative work in this new decade? What is the current and
future relationship between the creative and cultural industries and the
discursive and material practices of culture and economy?
 
Keynote speakers: David Hesmondhalgh, Georgina Born, Mark Deuze, Melissa
Gregg (final list TBC)
 
Papers are invited on the following (or similar) topics: the conditions of
creative/cultural workers; freelancing, Œfree¹ and co-creative labour,
cultural work and critical socio-spatial politics; work, exclusion and
marginality; the role of creative and cultural work in economic and cultural
policy; cultural work and 'cultural diplomacy'; impacts of technology and
Œconvergence¹, the creative nation post-recession/post-election.


Please email abstracts (150 words max for a 20 minute paper) to
m.o.banks at open.ac.uk by Friday April 9th. Places are limited and successful
acceptance will be confirmed in mid-April. To register for the conference
please contact Karen Ho k.d.ho at open.ac.uk. Conference fee: £70 (waged) £25
(Postgraduates/unwaged), includes lunch and refreshments. See
www.cresc.ac.uk <http://www.cresc.ac.uk/>  for programme updates and further
details. 


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