Abstract
This paper takes a social-constructionist approach to the terms vulnerability and resilience in order to test their analytical potential within the frame of an empirical spatial-science study. The empirical object was deliberately chosen from a field untypical for vulnerability analyses: the volatile labour markets for musical actors. The paper draws on qualitative interviews to trace the actors’ construction of labour-market related uncertainties, mainly caused by labour-market dynamics as well as institutional and territorial mismatches. Barely any resilience strategies exist for these forms of vulnerability. As a result, musical actors construct multiple identities from their bodies and talents, which they use in a targeted way within different spatial and social contexts. Two forms of network governance are additionally established to attenuate some of the competitive mechanisms. From a spatial viewpoint, these practices constitute transient, multi-local activity spaces in the labour market in which action is more effective when combined with a relatively stable home base.
Zusammenfassung
Der Beitrag verfolgt das Ziel, die Begriffe Vulnerabilität und Resilienz sozial-konstruktivistisch zu fassen und sie in ihrem analytischen Potenzial im Rahmen einer raumwissenschaftlichen empirischen Arbeit auszuprobieren. Es wurde bewusst ein für Vulnerabilitätsanalysen ungewohnter empirischer Gegenstand gewählt: die volatilen Arbeitsmärkte von Musicaldarstellern. Der Beitrag zeichnet auf der Basis von qualitativen Interviews die Konstruktionsleistungen von Musicaldarstellern nach, mit denen sie arbeitsmarktbezogene Unsicherheiten herausarbeiten, die sich vor allem aus den Dynamiken des Arbeitsmarktes sowie institutionellen und territorialen „Mismatches“ ergeben. Für diese Formen von Verletzbarkeiten gibt es kaum wirkungsvolle institutionalisierte Formen der Resilienzbildung. Daher konstruieren Darsteller aus ihrem Körper und ihren Begabungen multiple Identitäten, die sie gezielt in unterschiedlichen räumlichen und sozialen Kontexten einsetzen und nutzen. Dazu etablieren sie Formen von Netzwerk-Governance, mit deren Hilfe sie einige Konkurrenzmechanismen abmildern. In räumlicher Hinsicht konstituieren diese Praktiken auf dem Arbeitsmarkt flüchtige, multi-lokale Handlungsräume, in denen umso wirkungsvoller agiert werden kann, wenn dies von einem relativ festen Ausgangsort („Homebase“) aus geschieht.
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Notes
A second survey involving performers embarking on their careers and experts in the sector is currently underway. The initial results from contextual interviews with experts in the sector have already been integrated into this paper.
Z entrale A uslands- und Fach v ermittlung der Bundesagentur für Arbeit (International Placement Services of the German Federal Employment Agency)
Homogenous in relation to the age structure, experience and training of musical actors. The ten interviews allow for a clear delineation of specific characteristics of this employment sector but are not suited to a comparative analysis the situations of male and female musical actors. For this reason gender differentiation was not an object of the systematic evaluation of the empirical material.
There are hardly any statistics available relating specifically to musical actors. Although data gathered by the German Federal Employment Agency includes the professional classification “acting, dance and movement art”, it covers not only musical dancers but also other performing artists, with the result that deriving branch-specific statements from the data is not possible. A further problem is the fact that many musical actors working on a self-employed basis are not included in labour-market statistics. For example the Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie—German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology—(2009: 49) concludes that in 2008 52 % of performing artists were self-employed.
See http://www.bbk-bundesverband.de/index.php?id=213 (last accessed April 4, 2012).
See http://www.bbk-bundesverband.de/index.php?id=209 (last accessed April 4, 2012).
See http://www.musicalzentrale.de/index.php?service=8&subservice=1&details=1586 (last accessed April 4, 2012).
Back-ups or understudies are trained actors who are not offered a main role but prepare themselves to take over short-term for a leading player who is unavailable due to illness.
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Acknowledgements
Earlier versions of this paper were presented during the Regional Studies Association Workshop “Theorizing the Experience Economy: Towards a Future Agenda?” in November 2011 in Hamburg, at the meeting of the members’ association of the Leibniz-Institut für Regionalentwicklung und Strukturplanung (Leibniz Institute of Regional Development and Structural Planning—IRS) in January 2012 in Erkner, at the conference Mobilitäten und Immobilitäten held in Dortmund in February 2012, at the Annual Conference of the Association of American Geographers held in New York in February 2012 and at the spring meeting of the academic advisory committee of the IRS held in Erkner in February 2012. We would like to thank all participants and in particular the organisers of the workshops, meetings and sessions, namely Gernot Grabher and Hugues Jeannerat, Melanie Fasche and Brian Hracs, Sandra Huning and Heiderose Kilper for their constructive contributions and critical comments on the different stages in this work. We would also like to thank Kai Pflanz for his help with the research into the theme of social networks and social capital, Timothy Moss for his helpful comments on the first written version of this paper, the team of the IRS cross-sectional project “Vulnerability and Resilience from a Socio-spatial Perspective” for critical feedback and numerous discussions. Thanks to Lukas Heger, Thomas Weise and Sabine Schulz-Blank for their excellent research assistance.
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Ibert, O., Schmidt, S. Acting on Multiple Stages. Raumforsch Raumordn 70, 349–361 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13147-012-0176-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13147-012-0176-9