Cultural Work and Creative Subjectivity

This book critically investigates the declining status of creative workers in contemporary societies following changes associated with the neoliberal creativity discourse - from the distribution of resources around cultural production to consumption, and from the management of 'labour time' to 'life time'.

Xin Gu is Director of the Master of Cultural and Creative Industries and Senior Lecturer in the School of Media, Film and Journalism at Monash University, Australia.

1. Introduction: cultural work and creative subjectivity Part 1. Paradigms of creative subjectivity 2. The 'artist critique' of cultural work 3. The 'social critique' of cultural work 4. Consumer culture and social network market Part 2. Researching creative subjectivity 5. Co-option of the social by independent designer fashion in Manchester 6. Differentiation and justification of creative careers by visual artists and writers in Shanghai 7. Constitution of creative subjectivity of artisan makers in Melbourne 8. De-professionalisation: freelancers and consumer labour in the digital media industry in Manchester and Shenzhen Part 3. Creative subjectivity and cultural policy 9. Beginning after the end: critical cultural policymaking 10. Conclusion: key findings and future research