Escaping the precarity trap: a call for creative labour policy

Abstract

Drawing on a review of policy papers and cultural statistics from Canada and Europe, among others, this paper confirms a widespread belief in creative economy policies as panacea for revitalizing economies, while noting a general failure to acknowledge the role and the needs of creative workers. Existing policy instruments are mostly uncoordinated but can be divided into four categories entitled ‘education and training’, ‘awards and contests’, ‘business support’ and ‘social security policies’, with the greatest emphasis on the first three. Escaping the precarity trap – precarity meaning existence without security – typical of much cultural work requires a rehabilitated notion of ‘flexicurity’ that includes exceptionalist, sub-sectoral, sectoral and generalist strategies to support cultural workers. The authors argue for a more holistic policy framework that uses a rights-based perspective and emphasizes social security measures. This approach, which we term ‘creative ecology’, is based on the intersection of social, labour and cultural policy. This paper thereby begins the response to calls to academics, practitioners and policy analysts to provide a route map out of the demoralized terrain of neo-liberalism with respect to cultural work.

Keywords:

• creative labour
• creative economy
• social security
• flexicurity
• labour regulation

Notes

1. In this calculation of the extended footprint of the cultural sector, the Conference Board of Canada includes not only direct but also indirect and induced effects. This means that related spending such as transportation services and restaurant visits as well as cultural workers spending their earnings are taken into account. The larger estimate contests the UK claim, then, that its 7.3% of the GDP is among the highest in the world (Work Foundation 2010).

2. A list of such documents can be found in An international comparative quick scan of national policies for creative industries (2007). Rotterdam: European Institute for Comparative Urban Research at the Erasmus University.

3. The term was first used in the Creative industries mapping document by the UK’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport (1998).

4. The latest Canadian definition includes seven core domains: live performing arts; film, radio, and broadcasting; music; heritage; books and periodicals; visual arts and crafts; and interactive digital media. Three non-core cultural domains are part of the definition as well: design, advertising, architecture (Labour market information for Canada’s cultural sector, 2010).

5. The UK Department of Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) definition includes advertising, architecture; art and antiques; computer games; crafts; design; designer fashion; film and video; music; performing arts; publishing; software; TV and radio. In contrast, the Canadian definition does not include general IT-related jobs such as software development and maintenance which are creative only in the broadest sense. The trident method for measuring creative activity, developed by Cunningham and others, includes creative workers as well as non-cultural occupations such as clerical and sales occupations within the arts and core creative industries, plus creative workers active outside the creative sector. The Canadian definition above explicitly excludes non-cultural occupations. However, technical and operational work such as the work performed by broadcasting technicians or translators is included.

6. In 2010, the premium rate was 1.73% (for Québec residents, 1.36%) and the maximum insurable earnings were $43,200 with the minimum net self-employed income $6,000 each year. Thus, the maximum premium paid in the current year is $747.36 (Neill, 2010).

7. The EU green paper Unlocking the potential of cultural and creative industries (2010), the Workforce development plan (2010) for the Western Australian creative industries and the United Kingdom in its most recent policy initiatives (Beyond the creative industries, 2008; A creative block? The future of the UK creative industries, 2010) have all explicitly embraced innovation talk.

8. Hill and Capriotti show that self-employed artists have much lower incomes than those employed (2009). Mark Banks explores the differences in prestige and job security between craft labour and artistic work, pointing out that workers in the former category generally experience much more precarious working conditions. Potts and Cunningham (2010) show that those working in software or new media occupations earn almost twice as much as musicians or performing artists.