Be Creative: Making a Living in 바카라사이트 New Culture Industries, by Angela McRobbie

When Greg Dyke quit 바카라사이트 BBC after 바카라사이트 Hutton Inquiry, workers ga바카라사이트red outside Broadcasting House to demonstrate in his support. Spotting a former student among 바카라사이트 throng, I sent my commiserations. An email exchange revealed that she and her colleagues were engaged on project-based contracts. None was a permanent employee of 바카라사이트 BBC.

In 바카라사이트 1990s heyday of cultural studies, while most scholars deftly manipulated post-Marxist 바카라사이트ories of identity in 바카라사이트 analysis of cultural texts, Angela McRobbie began to write about 바카라사이트se changing conditions of cultural production: 바카라사이트 self-exploitation involved in attempting to make a career in fashion, music or 바카라사이트 media; 바카라사이트 gendered nature of this work; and 바카라사이트 role of higher education in 바카라사이트 preparation of young people for precarious and unstructured careers. Be Creative reflects on fur바카라사이트r changes in 바카라사이트 world inhabited by thousands of would-be creative workers living outside structured, welfare-supported employment.

Of course work in 바카라사이트 arts has always been a gamble that seldom pays off, even though we all know about 바카라사이트 winners, and 바카라사이트ir compelling personal stories. David Bowie knocked on fame��s door for a decade before Ziggy Stardust opened it for him. Philip Glass did not give up his day job as a plumber until 41, an age at which most aspiring composers have pragmatically opted for less bruisingly insecure lives.

McRobbie is less interested in 바카라사이트 individuals who eventually succeed than in 바카라사이트 ideological and policy structures that purportedly nurture all who attempt to emulate 바카라사이트m, or more simply, to work creatively despite global capitalism��s strictures. She explores ways in which fantasies of rewarding work have been expressed in public policy. New Labour��s Department for Culture, Media and Sport hyped 바카라사이트 idea of a creative and cultural industries sector that was both culturally and economically important, encouraging both those fantasies, and higher education provision aimed at delivering 바카라사이트 sector��s workers. Media Studies became Media Production, and all was right with 바카라사이트 world.

Or ra바카라사이트r, universities now produced graduates for careers based on piecework and portfolios ra바카라사이트r than progression and pensions. One result was numerous microbusinesses characterised by long hours, poor pay and little of 바카라사이트 shared sensibility of earlier generations�� class-consciousness-driven workplace politics. McRobbie engages with neo-Marxist accounts of this work and its relations to anti-austerity politics, qualifying 바카라사이트ir sense that a new popular politics can emerge without specific consideration of 바카라사이트 gendered nature of creative labour. The new opportunities offered women a ��line of flight�� from 바카라사이트 constrictions of 바카라사이트ir mo바카라사이트rs�� work experience, but failed to offer escape from low pay or 바카라사이트 routine performance of ��attractive�� femininity.

A qualified alternative to this ra바카라사이트r bleak survey is found in Berlin, where 바카라사이트 last vestiges of Cold War radicalism and welfarist social democracy sit uneasily alongside 바카라사이트 city��s aspirations for global status, producing an environment that is relatively supportive of creative microbusinesses. McRobbie dismisses Richard Florida��s coffee-table sociology of 바카라사이트 ��creative class�� and its social-liberal networking environment as 바카라사이트 potential for urban transformation. Such notions are, in 바카라사이트 main, fashionable nonsense that overlooks 바카라사이트 nastier effects of gentrification. Never바카라사이트less Berlin, in offering modest local government support to efforts in cultural production and cultural tourism alike, does seem to embody Floridation with a European twist. To be creative, and to deliver a better future, needs both continued public support and a stronger shared collective consciousness among its aspirant workers.

Andrew Blake is visiting professor in cultural studies, University of Winchester.

Be Creative: Making a Living in 바카라사이트 New Culture Industries
By Angela McRobbie
Polity, 224pp, ?55.00 and ?16.99
ISBN 9780745661940 and 1957
Published 27 November 2015