LECTURE 3: PRECARIOUS LABOUR

Question 1

Despite generalization, must always be critical of how

Answer 1

haracteristics like gender, career stage, life-cycle, ethnicity, education level, industry, location and time period may shape and differentiate these common features

Question 2

Don’t assume that the networking practices or rates of pay of new media workers taken from a study in 2002 reflect…

Answer 2

…the experiences of new media workers in the post-crisis landscape of 2015 let alone those of individuals in other industries like art or fashion.

Question 3

In general, precarious is defined as…

but in respect to the literature on creative labour, it typically describes…

Answer 3

insecure or unstable - as in a dodgy ladder that might fall over
… a range of characteristics

Question 4

Creative labour is said to be precarious because it features ___ that have been downloaded onto workers who as a result of____ lack ____

Answer 4

flexibilization, short-term projects and contracts, low and unstable pay, a growing duties and demands and risks and responsibilities

individualization, lack of collective voice.

Question 5

Allan Watson’s definition (2012) of precocity

Answer 5

“A preponderance of temporary, intermittent, and precarious jobs; long hours and bulimic patterns of working; the collapse of the boundaries between work and play; poor pay; high level of mobility; an mind-set that is a blend of bohemianism and entrepreneurialism; informal work environments and distinctive forms of sociality; and profound experiences of insecurity and anxiety about finding work, earning enough money and ‘keeping up’ in rapidly changing fields”

Question 6

What people are actually doing:

Major trend is (2)
- Described by A__ M___ + year

Answer 6

Multi-skilling and de-specialization i.e. many creative workers do a growing range of tasks on their own

Angela McRobbie (2002)

Question 7

TV journalist example of multi-skilling and de-specialization
- Refernce

Answer 7

Susan Christopherson (2008)

hops out of a van at some reporting scene. She sets up the camera to record herself, does the interviews and then later writes up the story. Instead of a team with a producer and camera man, the journalist does everything.

Question 8

Why do creatives do most of the work themselves? (3)

Answer 8

1) THANKS TO TECH –> makes things cheaper, easier and higher quality = need inexpensive camera and audio equipment so don’t need individuals with specialized skills
2) Many creative industries are RESTRUCTURING either because of tech crisis like film/music or just to remain competitive in the global marketplace - so budgets being slashed and individuals are being asked to do more with less

3) Broader SHIFT TO NEOLIBERAL modes of governance - workers are being conditioned to be self-reliant and entrepreneurial individuals
- workers expected to do things themselves and if they can’t handle it they can get out of the industry or train themselves

Question 9

3 levels of CONTRACTUAL FRAGMENTATION

Answer 9

1) FREELANCING
2) COMPARATIVELY LOW PAY for the skill level and among of hours received
3) FREELANCERS ARE CONSTANTLY DOING WORK BUT ALSO LOOKIN FOR WORK/TRAINING TO MAINTAIN THEIR EMPLOYABILITY (COMPULSORY NETWORKING)

Question 10

1) FREELANCING description
2) Pros and cons
3) Freelancing is very common in many creative industries but so too is… (difference between the 2)

Answer 10

1) marketplace increasingly volatile so to protect themselves = firms have introduced flexible labour and hire freelances > permanent staff to do the same work
2) Good for the firm but bad for workers cos they lack job security and are forced to constantly fret over where the next piece of work will come over
3) PURE ENTREPRENEURSHIP - whereas freelancer tries to perform a chunk of work fora firm, an entrepreneur performs work, say producing something creative directly for the consumer market.

Question 11

COMPARATIVELY LOW PAY for the skill level and among of hours received

Answer 11

• although some industries are higher than others e.g. media and advertising > music and fashion
• general oversupply of labour in all creative industries and the tendency for workers to undercut each other, or even to work for free, especially through internships, to gain experience suppresses wages

Question 12

Disadvantages of working as a freelancer
- Downloads the risk from… to..

• Not a full time employee = don’t get..
• and firms recently abuse contract workers cos they know that…

Answer 12

from firm to workers

• Health and pension benefits or certain protections
• they will simply replace them with another desperate freelancers from the pool

Question 13

Christopherson quote about increased individualization of production process

Answer 13

“because of the increased individualisation of the production process and the difficulty of breaking through into the key distribution venues, would-be talent may have to pay to compete for the attention of gatekeepers”

Question 14

Hesmondhalgh and Baker (2013) - ‘Creative Labour’ book - suggest that due to the short-term nature of most contracts in project-based creative industries =…
- therefore for freelancers, the development of…

Answer 14

‘job seeking is relentless, even during times of employment’’

• a good network of personal contacts is vital in finding work as when work ends = this will det. whether the freelancers career continues or ends

Question 15

COMPULSORY NETWORKING

1) What is it?
2) why do it? (2)

Answer 15

1) Going out after hours to bars and events to meet people
2) Partially to pick up on the local buzz of what jobs might be out there and to establish and maintain relationships with people in positions to share information or grant sources of paid work

Question 16

Christopherson (2008) stat on individuals searching for new work

Answer 16

“even after they get a contract, new-media workers spend up to 20% of the workweek looking for new sources of work”

Question 17

1) This model of networking assumes that if you are willing to put the time in, you will build those networks and get paid contacts but what about…
2) Why? What’s the consequence for them?

Answer 17

1) exclusion?
2) Many groups of workers, including women and people from other locations, ethnic and education backgrounds and especially women are excluded from these types of networking activities and obtain fewer contracts and suffer even lower rates of pay as a result.

Question 18

Clare (2013) - case study of advertising firms in London

Answer 18

Clare demonstrates that all of the important networking for a few major firms occurred at a local social club that did not allow women to enter –> describes how this negatively impacted the career prospects of these young women

Question 19

1) Christopherson (2008) example of new media and access to info
2) This is called…

Answer 19

1) Explains that when times are good, the flow of info about jobs is easy to access but when competition is tight (recession/ downturn) =free flow of information dries up quickly and those with the power, white older men in her study, work together to exclude other groups and keep the remaining work for themselves
2) DEFENSIVE EXCLUSIONARY NETWORKS

Question 20

As a result of contractual fragmentation and freelancing creative work is also said to…

Answer 20

be fragmented spatially and temporally
–> for many creative workers, the range of tasks, activities and interactions are spread across a range of physical and increasingly virtual spaces.

Question 21

How to workers perform tasks in various online spaces? (3)

Answer 21

1) Use the web to search for work or information
2) Skype to network or have meetings with clients
3) social media to promote themselves and pick up on trends and buzz

Question 22

One interesting outcome of the mobility of the creative workers =

Answer 22

move between physical places temporarily

–> rise of CO-WORK SPACES in cities like Berlin and Los Angeles

Question 23

CO-WORK SPACES

Answer 23

Places that allow creative workers or other freelancers to rent space by the hour, day or week
–> Most are independent businesses but there are even chains emerging so creatives can get a membership and then use the spaces in other cities around the world when they travel there.

Question 24

How does spatial fragmentation serves to add an additional layer of risk and calculus to the working lives of creatives?

Answer 24

They need to negotiate a range of spaces on an hourly basis which according to many becomes really draining

Question 25

Reasons why advertising firms cluster within Soho (Clare, 2013) (3)

Answer 25

1) Soho offers a range of services from graphic design, photography, music to film direction and cafes which are critical physical inputs and services needed to keep the entire advertising industry operating
2) Offers the urban ‘buzz’
3) Role of social network ties is concentrated in activities within the geographical cluster of Soho, in which creativity can, quite literally, take place through ‘geographies of circulation’.

Question 26

Describe urban ‘buzz’ (Clare, 2012)

Answer 26

Idea that a certain milieu can be vibrant in the sense that there are useful things going on, intended and unanticipated and therefore lots of information, news, gossip and inspiration that can inform one’s work

Question 27

‘Social network ties’ description (Clare, 2012)

Answer 27

the networks of relations between individuals that provide support, feed- back, knowledge, insight and resources

Question 28

___ really influences the level of spatial fragmentation

Answer 28

Specificity

Question 29

1) ‘Temporal fragmentation’ description

2) In fact blurring of work =

Answer 29

1) The idea that work is not only chopped up into contracts and tasks and spread across space but also spread over time.
- -> Instead of 9-5 many workers work long and unpredictable hours

2) Workers often report working all of the time

Question 30

1) Firms in the ‘new economy’ aim to provide work cultures that embrace (3)
2) But in doing so they can also produce work cultures linked to…
2) Reference

Answer 30

1) Openness, cooperation and self-management
2) Work cultures linked to long working hours and serious erosion of the line between work and leisure –> so job gratification can come at a heavy, sacrificial cost
3) Ross (2008)

Question 31

British Film industry case study

1) Reference
2) Findings

Answer 31

1) Blair et al (2001)
2) Found that for a particular film crew the working day ran to a maximum of 16 hours, while a maximum working week ran to 112 hours.

Question 32

REFERENCE points to the significant disruption causes by ‘bulimic’ patterns of working, in which…

Answer 32

Gill and Pratt (2016)

“idle periods with no work can give way to periods that require intense activity, round-the-clock working, with its attendant impacts on sleep, diet, health and social life’’

Question 33

“Extensification of work”

1) Reference
2) Definition

Answer 33

1) Jarvis and Pratt (2006)

2) Work extends into evenings, weekends and holidays and into the home itself
- -> this can place considerable burdens on individuals’ time and invariably that of their household too.

Question 34

Pressure to ‘always be on’ + health implications

Answer 34

Working long hours day in and day out results in increased incidence of illness and chronic disorders
–> Can’t take a sick day because they have deadlines and if they work as freelancers or entrepreneurs they don’t have any health coverage in countries like the US. In Canada or the UK they would still be covered by the state.

Question 35

Women and creative industry

1) Reference
2) Findings (2)

Answer 35

1) Ekinsmyth (2002)

2) - Females workers are most likely to be young and childless and that older, more senior females have typically sacrificed the possibility of the family in order to progress up the career ladder
- Those who have children seem to disappear from the workforce.

Question 36

Conception of risk

1) Reference
2) Definition

Answer 36

1) Ulrich Beck (1992)

2) “Systematic way of dealing with hazards and insecurities induced and introduced by modernization itself”

Question 37

Post-war period and height of fordism work characteristics

Answer 37

Highly standardized

• this ‘work society’ featured life-long and full0time employment - standard 9-5 day and most people worked in one location
• High degree of unionization and firms and the state provided workers with steady incomes, benefits and pensions

Question 38

1) What happened since fordist era (according to Beck)

2) As a result..?

Answer 38

1) 1970s - Automisation beganto soften this standard employment relationship and replace it with a more flexible system so firms introduced FLEXIBILITY
1) As a result = no. of workers, functions and location of work, the levels of pay and the hours of work were adjusted.

Question 39

Paid work was …. (Beck)

but now people are free to…and pursue… but at the same time they must…

Answer 39

chopped’ up into contracts, shifts and multiple work-sites

… construct their ‘own biographies’ - free to pursue new opportunities but at the same time they must negotiate new forms of risk and uncertainty.

Question 40

Critique of Beck

Answer 40

Although put the concept of risk on the table he never left the lab to explore the implications of flexibility on actual workers

Question 41

Allen and Henry case study of contract service workers in UK (2)

Answer 41

1) Findings suggest that these jobs are being chopped up or fragmented contractually, spatially and temporally.
2) Also found that this fragmentation individualizes workers an contributes to their experience of risk

Question 42

Because contracts have become short-term and uncertain =

Answer 42

unskilled workers are forced to hold multiple jobs in order to cobble together a living.

Question 43

Deborah Leslie (2015) study of fashion retail workers (2)

Answer 43

1) Inconsistency of shifts contributes to stress and anxiety

2) Instead of sharing the risk, shift work individualizes the experience of risk and pits workers against one another

Question 44

Work becoming increasingly decentralized (2)

Answer 44

1) Although management remains at a central site, for contract services, work is increasingly performed at multiple worksites which are scattered across the city
2) The need to shuttle between isolated and unpredictable workplaces contributes to the experience of risk for these workers.

Question 45

1) What did Carol Ekinsmyth find when she applied Beck’s framework to magazine publishing
(2)
2) Reference

Answer 45

1) –> She found that flexibility also increases fragmentation and risk for skilled professionals
- -> Also found that technology was slowly decentralizing the spacing of work and reducing the importance of face-to-face interaction.

2) Ekinsmyth (2002)

Question 46

Mark Banks argues “risk …

Answer 46

“risk management has become fully embedded within the domain of individuals”

Question 47

Keynesian welfare state disappearing

Answer 47

Neoliberal regimes ‘roll-back’ these supports they roll-out programs that encourage individuals to be self-reliant and self-governing.

Question 48

eoliberal regimes shape the conduct of individuals by extending…

Answer 48

… the mantra of economic rationality into every sphere of life: the economic, the social and the political

Question 49

As a result, a fully realized neoliberal citizenry is…

Answer 49

… a group of individual entrepreneurs

Question 50

What happened during the 1990s

Answer 50

Major record labels reached the height of their power and up until this point they benefitted from new tech and were more profitable than all other forms of entertainment including film, tv and video games.

Question 51

Role of musicians in old model

Answer 51

Musicians signed record contracts because of the cash advances and they focused on being creative whilst the label took care of everything else

Question 52

1) What is the tipping-point of the MP3 crisis?

2) Why? Stats since inception

Answer 52

1) Napster
2) Napster’s attracted over 60 million users and sparked a massive economic crash in the music industry - and in Canada, spending on recorded music declined by 40% in a few short years.

Question 53

What has technology done? (2)

Answer 53

1) Reduced the dependence on major labels

2) Created a new macro and micro-geography of music production

Question 54

Independent musicians in Canada stats

Answer 54

In Canada, for example the Canadian Independent Recording Artist Association estimates that over 95% of all the musicians are now independent.

Question 55

Quote about digital tech giving them autonomy and freedom

Answer 55

“there has never been another time where you can be the writer, the producer, the distributor and the promoter. Technology lets you become the studio and the label”

Question 56

However these opportunities have been accompanied by increasing demands and personal risk:

Answer 56

as record labels ‘roll-back’ supports and independent production becomes the norm, musicians are required to perform a growing range of creative and business tasks on their own.

Question 57

One of the ways in which musicians do everything themselves

Answer 57

In bands this often means dividing the tasks among the members
–> everyone in the band has extra things to taie care of: e.g. one person is ‘mercy mistress’, one books shows etc

Question 58

Importance of merchandise quote

Answer 58

“Merchandise is important because when we are touring it is the only way we can make money”

Question 59

Statistics of musicians working in a fixed location (from 1991 to 2006)

and…

Answer 59

In 1991 - only 6% of musicians reported working without a fixed location.

But by 2006, increased to 30%

… and performing tasks all over the city

Question 60

Quote about full-time musician and time playing music

Answer 60

‘I am a full time musician but only 10% of my time involves music”

Question 61

As entrepreneurial subjects, independent musicians are compelled to prioritize the economic over the creative and this leaves…

Answer 61

…little room to exercise the freedom of choice

Question 62

1) As more musicians take to the stage the oversupply drives the value of performances down =
2) What is a good amount to be paid

Answer 62

1) Now getting paid to perform is a treat

2) $50 for a show is a good night even though that money is split between the members of the band.

Question 63

According to the census, between 2001 and 2006, average incomes for musicians in Toronto declined by ___ and they earn ___

Means they’re precarious cos the cost of vital live/work space continues to …

Answer 63

25% …. roughly £7,000

…rise

Question 64

Quote about musician never feeling free

Answer 64

“You never have the sense that you are done or that you are really free. When you take time off you feel guilty about not practicing or doing something”

Question 65

While cell phones extend the feeling of being ‘on call,’ other digital technologies allow…

Answer 65

… a greater range of tasks to be performed in the home itself.Whereas musicians used to produce music in studios, computers allow recording to be done in the home.

Question 66

In some cases being an economically rational and self-reliant subject is regarded as incompatible with raising children

As one musician explained…

Answer 66

… “as a freelance musician, you have to keep your expenses down.

You have to be flexible and you have to sacrifice things. I live in this tiny house and I didn’t have children because I didn’t think this would be a good way to bring up a child.”