Creative work – attractive jobs and insecure working conditions

Abstract

Based on two empirical studies of Danish filmmakers, this article aims to identify what characterizes creative work and why it is experienced as being attractive by those who carry out this type of work. The first investigation, on which the article is based, is an interview study of fifteen young upcoming film directors conducted in 2004. The second study is a multi case study of the development of five film projects conducted during 2006-2007. Creative work represents an atypical form of employment that has received increased attention over the last decade, as the notion of the cultural economy, or the experience economy, has been launched as an area of economic growth. However, this article argues that creative work is often defined in broad and imprecise terms in the literature on cultural economy and the experience economy. The explanations given regarding the distinctiveness and attractiveness of creative work tend to be that self-realization is enabled in this form of work. Yet, this article seeks to nuance and supplement this explanation by incorporating the social dimension of creative work and relations to the actual product being produced. Based on Howard Becker’s theory of art as collective action and Antoine Hennion’s concept of co-production, the article emphasizes the social and the socio-material aspect of creative work. The article suggests that these dimensions of creative work offer potential explanations of the attractiveness of the work that go beyond the paradigm of self-creation. Hence, the article argues that the social and the socio-material aspect may provide fruitful new ways of addressing creative work. Finally, the article suggests that these aspects of working life may also be relevant in relation to other kinds of work.