Cultural work and creative biographies
A one day symposium
Wednesday April 1st 2009
The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA
Michael Young Rooms: 1, 2, 3 & 4
Organisers
Rosalind Gill, Centre for Citizenship Identities and Governance (CCIG), The Open
University
Mark Banks, Department of Sociology/CRESC, The Open University
Stephanie Taylor, Department of Psychology/CCIG, The Open University
The last decade has seen a huge growth of interest in cultural labour, coinciding with
increased attention to the media and other fields as 'creative industries', and underscored by
technological changes that have brought into being new occupations such as web design,
digital animation, electronic arts, etc. Suddenly there seems to be an acknowledgement that
media and culture involve work! Following on from our successful workshop in 2008 on "The
creative industries: 10 years after", in this symposium we bring together a series of invited
speakers to explore the nature of cultural work today. Research in this field points both to
the passionate attachments cultural workers have to their work, and to the costs this involves
in terms of precariousness, poor pay and 'bulimic' stop-go patterns of working. How do
workers in fields as diverse as fashion, television, film, web design or fine art negotiate and
manage working lives that are characterised by insecurity, informality, and in which ‘you are
only as good as your last job’?
A series of invited key speakers will address the following themes:
*Are cultural workers the poster boys and girls for work in the 'new economy'?
*How different is 'cultural labour' from other forms of work? Are we all cultural workers now?
*Is the notion of 'creative industries' useful?
*How do Romantic conceptions of artists and artistic work hold up in an age of
individualisation and insecurity?
*Is the notion of 'creative biographies' useful for understanding cultural workers lives as lived
and experienced in conditions of precarity?
*To what extent are creative biographies inflected by inequalities relating to class, gender,
'race', age and disability?
Speakers include: Lisa Adkins (Goldsmiths), Melissa Gregg Sydney) Helen Kennedy
(Leeds),Kate Oakley (City University and independent consultant), Stephanie Taylor
(Open) and Andreas Wittel (Nottingham)attendance is free for Open University and
CRESC students and staff, with a nominal charge of £25 for external attendees (coffee
and lunch provided). Please contact SocSci-CCIG-Events@open.ac.uk if you wish to
register for this event.