Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
SpringerLink
Log in

Young Entrepreneurs and Creative Collectives: Greek New Media Workers in Constant Crisis

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Virtual Workers and the Global Labour Market

Part of the book series: Dynamics of Virtual Work ((DVW))

Abstract

European Union (EU) and national cultural policies promote the new media industries as drivers of sustainable economic development. Their contribution may be particularly necessary in Greece, suffering fiscal crisis and high levels of unemployment. Yet little is known about the nature and conditions of Greek new media work. Michailidou and Kostala examine experiences and responses of two groups of Greek new media workers—‘Young Entrepreneurs’ and ‘Creative Collectives’—to precarious project work and the decline of traditional workplaces, boundaries, and identities. Some new media workers have become entrepreneurs; others have adopted more socialised ways of working. It is unclear whether either practice will be sustainable in the longer term.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Avdikos, V. (2014). Οι πολιτιστικές και δημιουργικές βιομηχανίες στην Ελλάδα. [Cultural and creative industries in Greece]. Thessaloniki: Epikentro [In Greek].

    Google Scholar 

  • Bain, A., & McLean, H. (2013). The artistic precariat. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 6, 93–111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Banks, M. (2007). The politics of cultural work. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Banks, M., & Hesmondhalgh, D. (2009). Looking for work in creative industries policy. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 15(4), 415–430.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Banks, M., Calvey, D., Owen, J., & Russel, D. (2002). Where the art is: Defining and managing creativity in new media SMEs. Creativity and Innovation Management, 11(4), 255–264.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Banks, M., Gill, R., & Taylor, S. (Eds.) (2014). Theorizing cultural work: Labour, continuity and change in the cultural industries. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Batt, R., Christopherson, S., Rightor, N., & Van Jaasveld, D. (2001). Net working: Work patterns and workforce policies for the new media industry. Media. CAHRS working paper series, Washington.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck, U. (1992). Risk society. Towards a new modernity. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Belt, V., Richardson, R., & Webster, J. (2000). Women’s work in the information economy: The case of telephone call centres. Information, Communication & Society, 3(3), 366–385.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blair, H. (2003). Winning and losing in flexible labour markets: The formation and operation of networks of interdependence in the UK film industry. Sociology, 37(4), 677–694.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blair, H., Grey, S., & Randle, K. (2001). Working in film. Personnel Review, 30(2), 170–185.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Braun, E., & Lavanga, M. (2007). An international comparative quick scan of national policies for creative industries. Euricur: Rotterdam.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brophy, E. (2010). The subterranean stream: Communicative capitalism and call centre labour. Ephemera: Theory & Politics in Organization, 10(3/4), 470–483.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burston, J., Dyer-Witheford, N., & Hearn, A. (2010). Digital labour: Workers, authors, citizens. Ephemera. Theory & Politics in Organization, 10(3/4), 214–221.

    Google Scholar 

  • Christopherson, S., & van Jaarsveld, D. (2005). New media after the Dot.com bust. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 11(1), 77–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • CMSC (2007). New media and the creative industries. Fifth report of session 2006-07. London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conor, B. E. (2013). Subjects at work: Investigating the creative labour of British screenwriters. In P. Szczepanik & P. Vonderau (Eds.), Behind the screen: European contributions to production studies (pp. 207–220). London: Palgrave.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Daskalaki, M. (2014). Mobility in urban social events: Towards organizational transvergence. Culture and Organization, 20(3), 215–231.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DCMS (2001). Creative industries mapping documents 2001. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/creative-industries-mapping-documents-2001.

  • De Peuter, G. (2014). Beyond the model worker: Surveying a creative precariat. Culture Unbound, 6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deuze, M. (2007). Media work. Cambridge, UK: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deuze, M. (2009). Media industries, work and life. European Journal of Communication, 24, 467–480.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flew, T. (2002). Defining Creative Industries. In Cultural Sites, Cultural Theory, Cultural Policy, The Second International Conference on Cultural Policy Research, 23-26 January, Wellington, New Zealand.

    Google Scholar 

  • Florida, R. (2005). Cities and the creative class. New York & London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fuchs, C. (2010). Labor in informational capitalism and on the Internet. The Information Society, 26(3), 179–196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garcia-Lorenzo, L., Sell, L., & Donnelly, P. (2014). ‘I just want a job’: The untold stories of entrepreneurship. In M. Izak, L. Hitchen, & D. Anderson (Eds.), Untold stories in organisations (pp. 143–167). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giannopoulos, G., Dallas, K., Zacharopoulos, Ν., Zorba, M., Kazazaki, Z., Karras, Ch., et al. (2012). Πρόταση για μια νέα πολιτιστική πολιτική. [Proposal for a new cultural policy]. Athens. [In Greek].

    Google Scholar 

  • Gill, R. (2002). Cool, creative and egalitarian?: Exploring gender in project-based new media work in Europe. Information, Communication and Society, 5(1), 70–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gill, R. (2007). Technobohemians or the new Cybertariat? New media work in Amsterdam a decade after the web. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gill, R. (2010). Life is a pitch : Managing the self in new media work. In M. Deuze (Ed.), Managing media work (pp. 249–262). London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gill, R., & Pratt, A. C. (2008). In the social factory?: Immaterial labour, precariousness and cultural work. Theory, Culture & Society, 25(7–8), 1–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hall, P. A., & Soskice, D. (2001). An introduction to varieties of capitalism. In P. A. Hall & D. Soskice (Eds.), Varieties of capitalism: The institutional foundations of comparative advantage (pp. 1–69). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Heinrich, D. (2012). Varieties of innovation systems? Economic and Environmental Studies, 12(4), 337–362.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herrmann, A. M., & Peine, A. (2011). When ‘national innovation system’ meet ‘varieties of capitalism’ arguments on labour qualifications: On the skill types and scientific knowledge needed for radical and incremental product innovations. Research Policy, 40(5), 687–701.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hesmondhalgh, D. (2002). The cultural industries. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hesmondhalgh, D., & Baker, S. (2010). ‘A very complicated version of freedom’: Conditions and experiences of creative labour in three cultural industries. Poetics, 38(1), 4–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hesmondhalgh, D., & Baker, S. (2011). Creative labour. Media work in three cultural industries. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holts, K. (2013). Towards a taxonomy of virtual work. Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation, 7(1), 31–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huws, U. (2010). Expression and expropriation: The dialectics of autonomy and control in creative labour. Ephemera. Theory & Politics in Organization, 10(3/4), 504–521.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huws, U. (2013). Working online, living offline: Labour in the Internet age. Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation, 7(1), 1–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Indergaard, M. (2004). Silicon Alley. The rise and fall of a new media district (1st ed.). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jenkins, H., & Deuze, M. (2008). Editorial: Convergence culture. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 14(D), 5–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karachalis, N., & Deffner, A. (2012). Rethinking the connection between creative clusters and city branding: The cultural axis of Piraeus street in Athens. Quaestiones Geographicae, 31(4), 87–97.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy, H. (2010). Net work: The professionalization of web design. Media, Culture & Society, 32(2), 187–203.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lazaretou, S. (2014). Η έξυπνη οικονομία: ‘πολιτιστικές’ και ‘δημιουργικές’ βιομηχανίες στην Ελλάδα. Μπορούν να αποτελέσουν προοπτική εξόδου από την κρίση; [The smart economy: ‘cultural’ and ‘creative industries in Greece. Can they be a way out of the crisis?]. Athens. [In Greek].

    Google Scholar 

  • Leadbeater, C., & Oakley, K. (1999). The independents. Britain’s new cultural entrepreneur. DEMOS: London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leadbeater, C., & Oakley, K. (2005). Why cultural entrepreneurs matter. In J. Hartley (Ed.), Creative industries (pp. 299–311). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • McRobbie, A. (2009). Reflections on precarious work in the cultural sector. In: B. Lange, A. Kalandides, B. Stöber, et al. (Eds.), Governance der Kreativwirtschaft. Diagnosen und Handlungsoptionen (pp. 123–137). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Menger, P.-M. (1999). Artistic labor markets and careers. Annual Review of Sociology, 25, 541–574.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neff, G., Wissinger, E., & Zukin, S. (2005). Entrepreneurial labor among cultural producers: ‘Cool’ jobs in ‘hot’ industries. Social Semiotics, 15(3), 307–334.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neilson, B., & Rossiter, N. (2008). Precarity as a political concept, or, fordism as exception. Theory, Culture & Society, 25(7–8), 51–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nightingale, P., & Coad, A. (2014). Muppets and gazelles: Political and methodological biases in entrepreneurship research. Industrial and Corporate Change, 23, 113–143.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oakley, K. (2014). Absentee workers: Representation and participation in the cultural industries. In M. Banks, R. Gill, & S. Taylor (Eds.), Theorizing cultural work: Labour, continuity and change in the cultural industries (pp. 56–67). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pratt, A. (2002). Hot jobs in cool places. The material cultures of new media product spaces: The case of the south of market, San Francisco. Information, Communication and Society, 5(1), 27–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ross, A. (2007). Nice work if you can get it: The mercurial career of creative industries policy. In G. Lovink & N. Rossiter (Eds.), My creativity reader. A critique of creative industries (pp. 17–40). Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ross, A. (2009). Nice work if you can get it: Life and labor in precarious times. New York: New York University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ross, A. (2013). In search of the lost paycheck. In T. Scholz (Ed.), Digital labor. The Internet as playground and factory (pp. 13–32). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Souliotis, N. (2013). Cultural economy, sovereign debt crisis and the importance of local contexts: The case of Athens. Cities, 33, 61–68.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stahl, M. (2014). Specificity, ambivalence and the commodity form of creative work. In M. Banks, R. Gill, & S. Taylor (Eds.), Theorizing cultural work: Labour, continuity and change in the cultural industries (pp. 71–84). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Terranova, T. (2000). Free labor. Producing culture for the digital economy. Social Text, 18(63), 33–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Terranova, T. (2004). Network culture: Politics for the information age. London: Pluto.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vinodrai, T. (2013). Design in a downturn? Creative work, labour market dynamics and institutions in comparative perspective. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 6, 159–176.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zorba, M. (2009). Conceptualizing Greek cultural policy: The nondemocratization of public culture. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 15(3), 245–259.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Communication, Media and Culture, Panteion University, Athens, Greece

    Martha Michailidou & Eleni Kostala

Authors
  1. Martha Michailidou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Eleni Kostala
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. London School of Economics, London, United Kingdom

    Juliet Webster

  2. Hertfordshire Business School, University of Hertfordshire, AL10 9AB, United Kingdom

    Keith Randle

Copyright information

© 2016 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Michailidou, M., Kostala, E. (2016). Young Entrepreneurs and Creative Collectives: Greek New Media Workers in Constant Crisis. In: Webster, J., Randle, K. (eds) Virtual Workers and the Global Labour Market. Dynamics of Virtual Work. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-47919-8_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-47919-8_3

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-47918-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-47919-8

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation