The social contract of artists in the era of cultural industries

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse the growing emphasis on the concepts of the experience economy, creative industries, and cultural industries as ways in which the social contract of artists is negotiated. What expectations are directed towards the artistic profession and how is the contribution of artists to society and their work conditions constructed by these concepts? The paper applies the concept of social contract from the sociology of professions which enables a focus on the artistic profession not only in an internal arts world perspective, but also in a broader societal frame. The study presented was carried out in a Norwegian context. Empirically, the paper is based on 28 applied research reports.

Keywords:

• the artistic profession
• social contract
• professional autonomy
• cultural industries
• neoliberalism

Notes

1. The Norwegian surveys are designed in accordance with the distinction between artistic, artistically related, and non-artistic income introduced by Throsby (1994).

2. It could be questioned whether perspectives from the sociology of professions is fruitful for the study of artists. Artists do not represent a classic profession in the same way as physicians and lawyers. In the literature of the sociology of professions it is argued that a clear distinction between professions and other occupational groups is increasingly harder to draw (Thomas and Hewitt 2011). In recent literature there seems to be a broad consensus that professions are occupational groups that carry out services based on theoretical knowledge acquired through a specialized education. Artists, in the same way as the classic professions, are often seen as having specialized knowledge that is not easily understood by the average citizen. In addition, artists represent an occupational group that is often associated with a strong vocation – a feature that is often emphasised in profession theory (Abbott 1989). Another characteristic of professions is that there exists a more or less formalized agreement that the profession contributes something of significant value to society. This is what can be studied by the concept of social contract.