Risk and Freedom for Independent Musicians in Toronto: Hracs, 2011

Question 1

This paper applies…

Answer 1

Ulrich Beck’s (1992) conceptualization of risk and reflexivity to entrepreneurial employment in the creative economy.

Question 2

What does this paper document?

Answer 2

Drawing on 65 interviews with musicians in Toronto this paper documents the ways in which digital technologies and independent music production fragments work, both
temporally and spatially.

Question 3

This paper argues….

Answer 3

Digital technologies, independent music production and entrepreneurial subjectivities intensify existing employment risk and introduce a range of new conflicts, insecurities and barriers to creativity.

Question 4

‘Risk Society’ (1992) Beck

Answer 4

Workers are becoming individualized as a result of the destandardization of work and the shift to the ‘second modernity.’ With traditional certainties of work and state supports disappearing, individuals are forced to become entrepreneurial subjects who construct their own biographies by negotiating a range of opportunities and
risks.