Abstract
More than two decades of discussion of the cultural and creative industries by academics, educationalists and policy-makers has led, inevitably, to considerable interest in the experience and motivations of the people working in these industries. One interpretation is that such workers are drawn into a form of ‘self-exploitation’ (McRobbie, 1998) by their creative ambitions, becoming wholly subject to the requirements and interests of industries and employers. In this chapter, we draw on theory from social, narrative and discursive psychology to propose a more complex form of identification or subjectification (see Wetherell, 2008), which is linked to the multiple positionings and meanings in play around creativity and creative work. Our analyses of this complexity and multiplicity offer new explanations for the choice of a creative career and for problems confronted by creative workers. In particular, we explore conflicts around the taking up of a creative identity. These conflicts are shown to be associated with, and impact on, certain categories of workers, reinforcing previously ascribed ‘deficit’ identities (Reynolds and Taylor, 2005). The chapter therefore challenges previous arguments concerning the motivation and experience of creative workers.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Banks, M. (2007) The Politics of Cultural Work (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan).
Beck, U. (2000) Living Your Own Life in a Runaway World: Individualisation, Globalisation and Politics, in Hutton, W. and Giddens, A. (eds) On the Edge: Living with Global Capitalism (London: Jonathan Cape): 164–174.
Becker, H. (1982) Art Worlds (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press).
Billig, M. (1995) Banal Nationalism (London: Sage).
Bridgstock, R. (2005) Australian Artists, Starving and Well-Nourished: What Can We Learn from the Prototypical Protean Career? Australian Journal of Career Development 14(3): 40–48.
Brown, S.D. (2007) Intergroup Processes: Social Identity Theory, in Langdridge, D. and Taylor,S.(eds.) Critical Readings in Social Psychology (Maidenhead: Open University Press): 133–162.
Burkitt, I. (2008) Subjectivity, Self and Everyday Life in Contemporary Capitalism, Subjectivity 23: 236–245.
Department for Culture, Media and Sport (2001) Creative Industries Mapping Document (London: HMSO).
Edley, N. (2001) Analysing Masculinity: Interpretative Repertoires, Subject Positions and Ideological Dilemmas, in Wetherell, M., Taylor, S. and Yates, S. (eds) Discourse as Data (London: Sage): 189–228.
Edley, N. and Wetherell, M. (1995) Men in Perspective: Practice, Power and Identity (Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall/ Harvester Wheatsheaf).
Freeman, A. (2007) London’s Creative Sector (London: GLA).
Giddens, A. (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age (Cambridge: Polity).
Gill, R. (2007) Gender and the Media (Cambridge: Polity).
Gill, R. and Pratt, A. (2008) In the Social Factory? Immaterial Labour, Precariousness and Cultural Work, Theory Culture & Society 25(7–8): 1–30.
Gregg, M. (2011) Work’s Intimacy (Cambridge: Polity).
Howkins, J. (2001) The Creative Economy: How People Make Money from Ideas (London: Penguin).
Leadbeater, C. (2004) Britain’s Creativity Challenge, Creative and Cultural Skills, http://www.ccskills.org.uk, date accessed 24 October 2007.
Leadbeater, C. and Oakley, K. (1999) The Independents: Britain’s New Cultural Entrepreneurs (London: Demos).
Keane, M. (2009) Creative Industries in China: Four Perspectives on Social Transformation, International Journal of Cultural Policy 15(4): 431–443.
McRobbie, A. (1998) British Fashion Design: Rag Trade or Image Industry? (London: Routledge).
McRobbie, A. (2002) Clubs to Companies: Notes on the Decline of Political Culture in Speeded up Worlds, Cultural Studies 16(4): 516–531.
McRobbie, A. (2009) The Aftermath of Feminism: Gender, Culture and Social Change. London: Sage.
Nixon, S. and Crewe, B. (2004) Pleasure at Work? Gender, Consumption and Work-Based Identities in the Creative Industries, Consumption, Markets and Culture 7(2): 129–147.
Pollard, E., Connor, H. and Hunt, W. (2008) Mapping Provision and Participation in Postgraduate Creative Arts and Design (London: National Arts Learning Network).
Power, D. (2009) Culture, Creativity and Experience in Nordic and Scandinavian Cultural Policy, International Journal of Cultural Policy 15(4): 445–460.
Reynolds, J. and Taylor, S. (2005) Narrating Singleness: Life Stories and Deficit Identities, Narrative Inquiry 15(2): 197–215.
Rose, N. (1989) Governing the Soul: The Shaping of the Private Self (London and New York: Routledge).
Rose, N. (1996) Inventing Our Selves: Psychology, Power and Personhood (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Taylor, S. (2006) Narrative as Construction and Discursive Resource, Narrative Inquiry 16(1): 94–102.
Taylor, S. (2011) Negotiating Oppositions and Uncertainties: Gendered Conflicts in Creative Identity Work, Feminism & Psychology 21(3): 354–371.
Taylor, S. (2012) ‘One Participant Said …’: The Implications of Quotations from Biographical Talk, Qualitative Research 12(4): 388–401.
Taylor, S. and Littleton, K. (2006) Biographies in Talk: A Narrative-Discursive Research Approach, Qualitative Sociology Review II(1): 22–38.
Taylor, S. and Littleton, K. (2008a) Creative Careers and Non-Traditional Trajectories (London: National Arts Learning Network).
Taylor, S. and Littleton, K. (2008b) Art Work or Money: Conflicts in the Construction of a Creative Identity, The Sociological Review 56(2): 275–292.
Taylor, S. and Littleton, K. (2011) New Creative Careers: The Problems of Progression and Uncertainty, in Shaw, J., Wise, J. and Rout, A. (eds) Research in the Lifelong Learning Networks (York: Lifelong Learning Networks National Forum): 52–58.
Taylor, S. and Littleton, K. (2012) Contemporary Identities of Creativity and Creative Work (Farnham: Ashgate).
Weatherall, A. (2002) Gender, Language and Discourse (London: Routledge).
Wetherell, M. (1998) Positioning and Interpretative Repertoires: Conversation Analysis and Post-Structuralism in Dialogue, Discourse and Society 9(3): 387–412.
Wetherell, M. (2008) Subjectivity or Psycho-Discursive Practice? Subjectivity 22(1): 73–81.
Copyright information
© 2013 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Taylor, S., Littleton, K. (2013). Negotiating a Contemporary Creative Identity. In: Cultural Work and Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137013941_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137013941_8
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-43675-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-01394-1
eBook Packages: Palgrave Media & Culture CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)