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The Meanings and Problems of Contemporary Creative Work

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Abstract

Contemporary creative work has emerged as a focus of international academic and policy attention since the late 1990s, the period in which the cultural and creative industries achieved recognition as a highly successful new sector. Commentators have noted the problems faced by many contemporary creative workers because of the precarious and ill-paid nature of much of the work in the sector. This article proposes that associations with the creative arts provide an important resource for the occupational identification for these workers, yet also a significant source of conflicts. Analyses of interviews with creative workers who were recruited from the students and alumni of UK art colleges (Higher Education Institutions in Arts and Design) suggest that meanings derived from the creative arts and taken up in educational contexts and elsewhere continue to shape these workers’ understandings of creative work, including the process of creative working, the trajectory of a creative career, and what constitutes success in creative work. The importance of these meanings is explored and detailed through a consideration of participants’ identifications using a narrative-discursive analysis of interview data.

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Notes

  1. The ‘cultural industries’ came to be of interest as producers of culture, including national culture, for example, through media like television (O’Connor 2007). ‘Creative industries’ is a newer term combining ‘cultural industries’ and ‘creative arts’ (Hartley 2005, p.6). The concept of the creative industries was originally introduced in the UK (DCMS 2001) but has subsequently been taken up in other national contexts, with varying emphases and definitions (see Keane 2009; Power 2009).

  2. Other details of the transcription are as follows:

    (Laughter) indicates laughter by speaker

    … indicates that words have been omitted from the transcript

    [he] indicates a word added to increase readability

    Italics indicates a word emphasised by the speaker

  3. The non-linear career trajectory which the participants claimed for themselves corresponds to the portfolio or ‘protean’ career (Bridgstock 2005) described by some researchers as a feature of contemporary working lives in certain areas. My interest in this article is in participants’ own accounts and the possible functions of these accounts.

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  1. Psychology Social Sciences, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK

    Stephanie Taylor

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  1. Stephanie Taylor
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Correspondence to Stephanie Taylor.

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Taylor, S. The Meanings and Problems of Contemporary Creative Work. Vocations and Learning 5, 41–57 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12186-011-9065-6

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