Much of what we know about workplace inequality, we know from studies on work in industrial and information-based economies. There has been less interrogation into how processes of inequality are formed and sustained in creative work and cultural industries. Given the growing trend away from traditional work rooted in formal organizations and toward cultural industries, how can we understand the relationship between work and inequality in non-standard, creative labour? To answer this question I explore the world of stand-up comedy by drawing on 25 semi-structured interviews with stand-up comedians and over one hundred hours of observational data. My analysis reveals that comedy work is organized around the image of an ‘ideal worker,’ an ideal maintained by intersubjective mechanisms of rule: diversity logics, compulsory networking, and creative license. The existence of the ‘ideal worker’ influences how, when, and under what conditions work happens in stand-up comedy for those who fall outside of that ideal. Specifically, workers’ social locations shape how they self-manage, marginalized workers must self-regulate in relation to the work (like everyone else) and the ‘ideal worker.’ Finally, the analysis reveals that workers in stand-up comedy use various strategies to negotiate consent and resistance in their work arrangements in terms of where and under what circumstances they work. Overall, this research highlights how the micro politics of capital are informed by larger power relations that sustain inequality in cultural work settings. Specifically, this work demonstrates the need to address how ‘ideal workers’ are maintained in cultural work, as well as how social location shapes processes of self-management and strategic engagement within unequal work environments. / Dissertation / Doctor of Social Science

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Freie Univ, Berlin, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 126-140).

The dissertation is an attempt to culturologically view the development of cultural policy in the context of the knowledge society and the related socio-economic processes of the knowledge and creative economy that are part of the new economy. The new economy is a term that encompasses specific types of economies whose common denominator is a combination of a new form of organization and decision-making processes of economic subjects with links to technological and non-technological innovation as well as the development of human resources. The aim of the thesis is to analyze the development of cultural and creative industries concepts and their application to cultural policy and other related public policies. At the same time, the aim of this work is a case study on the current situation in the development of the concepts of cultural and creative industries in relation to the analyzed concepts and their reflection in public policies in Slovakia.

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This study presents insights on career management in the creative and cultural industries in Scotland with detailed exploration into practices and strategies employed by cultural workers. Following a phenomenological approach, the study has used subjective data of individual career experiences and interpreted them into objective patterns of career management. Using qualitative research interviews and thematic analysis, the doctoral study explored the career management experiences of thirty six cultural workers and identified particular strategies adopted in the self-management of precarious and unpredictable careers. Employment in the creative and cultural industries is with precarious which constitutes a specific environment for career management and career progression. Not enough is known about the ways in which cultural workers manage their careers in these circumstances. The aim of this study was to understand the realities of contemporary career management in the creative and cultural industries and to identify particular practices and strategies in which creative careers might be managed. Beyond the scholars in this field, this research is of interest to cultural workers, policy makers in the creative and cultural industries more broadly and higher education institutions preparing graduates for work in the creative and cultural industries. The empirical evidence gathered can better inform cultural workers of effective career management strategies and propose policy interventions that would facilitate effective career management and career management education. Key findings focus on the use of online / social media within creative careers and how such activity takes place; the development of a new harmony between art and economic logics and the application of development based career strategies in creative careers, with cultural workers being more managerial than they even recognise themselves. The findings from this study offers confirmation to what is already known about careers in the creative and cultural industries, greater depth and detail to what is already known and extend understanding about the relationship disconnect between individual career Career Management in the Creative and Cultural Industries Abstract management strategies and the policies designed to support cultural workers – policies which focus on growth and development of the industry but not those individuals who make up the industry. Exploration of the phenomenon of career management in the creative and cultural industries requires further research, which could include: alternative methodologies to elicit perceptions based on the findings from this study, deeper exploration into both the difference in career management within the creative and cultural industries and the emerging relationship between art and economic logic.