Conference report from Annette Naudin.

The recent conference at the Open University, The Future of Cultural Work inspired much debate and discussion amongst delegates and touched on many pertinent issues for my PhD research into cultural entrepreneurship and education policy. With many strands including capitalism and work, precarious labour, working in television and inclusion & exclusion, it offered a variety of perspectives and provocations in relation to cultural work and cultural labour. Not only were the themes appropriate to my research, but many key academics on the subject presented and attended the conference – I must admit to being a little start-struck! McGuigan talked of the relationship between capitalism and cultural work, the subject of a forthcoming paper in the International Journal for Cultural Policy and of his book Cool Capitalism discussed in previous blog posts. Hesmondhalgh and Gregg kicked us off with two provocations on the future(s) of cultural work highlighting the pitfalls and issues associated with working in the cultural, media and creative industries. Hesmondhalgh presented the idea that on the one hand cultural studies has been very critical of recent cultural policy and of the implications for culture and those working in the sector, while on the other hand there is an over optimistic (near evangelical) promotion of creativity and the benefits of working in the sector. He suggested that instead of treating cultural workers as a ‘special’  case, that they in fact have more in common with all workers in terms of needing to explore their rights and conditions of work. He talked of  unions as a potential solution, recognising the problems with unionising freelancers and the current strength of personal networks which in many ways act as a support system but without the official power of an organised group such as a formal union.

In her provocation, Gregg highlighted the relationship between love and work, in terms of the language used to describe the ideal job and a very middle class aspiration and aestheticization of the experience of work. A simple  Blackberry advert demonstrated this perfectly; All you need is love. To further illustrate her point, Gregg referred to Steve Jobs and the language of love he expresses. This, along with our own implicit contribution to competitivess at work, and to the use of tools to make our own work and life balance increasingly blurred was contrasted with the recent suicides at the chinese factory, Foxconn which manufactures iPhones.

Of the many other interesting papers, I would like to highlight an ongoing research project by Daniel Ashton at Bath University, with media students who are making use of an incubation space rather than an ordinary class room. Ashton discussed how students described the space as more professional and how they were engaged in ‘performing’ the process of becoming a cultural worker. This process is aimed at getting students ‘industry ready’, clearly a concept which caused much concern amongst the delegates, but which for me, working within a vocational university, is a key objective whether I like it or not. The question for me is not to be critical of students, parents and others who want students to be better prepared for work (self employment or as an employee), but how to balance that while still encouraging students to be critical and independent thinkers. Despite the entrepreneurial nature of the students he researched, Ashton suggested that they demonstrated ethical concerns in wanting to set up social enterprises relating to their cultural work. A common aspiration for my students and something which did not seem to be a contradiction in my experience.

Finally, some of the other points raised:

• Do we need to rethink the notion of self-exploitation in cultural workers?
• How does networking actually work in all the different contexts & subsectors?
• What are the implications for education?
• Should we be more explicit about the idea of failure (which might not be failures) in the cultural industries as opposed to encouraging the celebrity status of a few workers?
• Do we ignore class and the importance of social capital?
• Is the celebration of autonomy and independence associated with cultural workers a paradox?
• Would it be helpful in research to take a sociological and more general view of cultural work?
• Is there a lack of interest and awareness of issues of diversity in research of the cultural sector and workforce?
• Rather than ‘Living on Thin Air’ are we Living on a Contradiction?