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Why Are Artists Poor? The Exceptional Economy of the Arts
Abstract
Thesis (doctoral)--Universiteit Rotterdam, 2002.
... The second and third theories seem to be insufficiently distinguished and Menger does not clarify how psychic income is different from "love"-as one would expect loved activities to bring one type of psychic income and, hence, be a subset of it. Regardless of the name, this strand of literature reverberates through recent studies of musicians (Chafe and Kaida 2020;Umney and Kretsos 2015) and visual artists (Abbing 2002) disguised under the concept of passion that justifies the lack of material rewards, stigmatizes treating art as a trade, and instills a desire for selfimprovement at the expense of material stability. Since Menger's paper, new perspectives have been added to our understanding of the motivation behind work without adequate compensation. ...
... Even if the oversupply of artists is an international phenomenon-as many researchers would have it (Adler 2021;Caves 2000;Lingo and Tepper 2013;Menger 1999)-it is enmeshed in different institutional triangles of the state, the market, and the education system. Much of the debate about why artists stay in bad jobs, often narrated as if it were place-neutral, relied on only four countries: the United States (Adler 2021;Frenette and Dowd 2020), the United Kingdom (Oakley et al. 2017;Umney and Kretsos 2014), the Netherlands (Abbing 2002;Velthuis 2005), and France (Menger 2002) and, within them, a narrow set of metropolitan areas, such as New York (Currid 2006;Neff, Wissinger, and Zukin 2005), Los Angeles (Randle and Culkin 2009), or London (Oakley et al. 2017;Kretsos 2014, 2015). The four countries represent a limited purview: The first two are rather liberal with large art markets, the remaining two are rather social-democratic with the state playing a key role in art funding. ...
... For example, the Netherlands-with eight times larger per capita governmental spending on the arts ($46 vs $6) than that the United States (Velthuis 2005)-can be presented as "subsidydriven." Dutch artists derive the second lowest share of their income from the market (73 percent) and the highest from gifts and donations, right after the clergy (Abbing 2002). The Dutch market might seem small-but only from the vantage point of the United States and the United Kingdom that dominated the literature. ...
Why and how do workers stay in bad jobs? Based on 972 questionnaires and longitudinal data from 45 interviews, the article finds substantial support for the labor of love and the psychic income theories and no support for the miscalculated risk and commitment device theories. It documents personal strategies (overworking and childlessness) and institution-related strategies (diploma-hoarding and institutional pegs—a term introduced in this article). The article argues that the existing dichotomy of market-driven art and the state-subsidy-driven art could be enriched by the third model epitomized by Poland—a country with neither the art market comparable to that of the United States or the United Kingdom nor a state spending on art comparable to that of France or the Netherlands—where free higher education is used as a fallback option in the context of scarce resources.
... This study acknowledges that internationally there is a considerable amount of research regarding the challenges faced by musicians. Many musicians face poverty, and South African musicians are no exception (Abbing, 2002;Chari, 2016;Mugovhani & Nawa, 2019). In this study, the term 'musicians' refers to musicians who follow these genres of music: gospel, rap, kwaito, and opera. ...
... Various studies point to rising challenges regarding poor career management of musicians as a phenomenon that requires special attention (Abbing, 2002;Chari, 2016;Leal, 2018;Mugovhani & Nawa, 2019). Yende and Mugovhani (2021) found that career management is essential for musicians to have a successful career in the South African music industry. ...
... Without talent-preneurial skills, South African musicians will continue to experience exploitation in the entertainment industry, which will, in turn, lead to poverty. Extensive literature exists on challenges faced by musicians worldwide (Abbing, 2002;Rectanus, 2016;Mugovhani & Nawa, 2019). However, limited attention is given to challenges faced by South African musicians and the implications of the challenges for their careers. ...
Effective career management is essential for all musicians to succeed in the music industry. Understanding, developing and maintaining effective career management is a vital feature for musicians globally. However, in South Africa, this is not the case. There is a concern about musicians who live and die bankrupt for various reasons, including the lack of knowledge about career management. Many South African musicians are famous and rich at the height of their careers, but experience vicious poverty and struggle to support their families after their careers peak. This study aims to discuss and raise awareness about the importance of career management for South African musicians from a talent-preneur skills perspective. A qualitative content analysis was employed to guide this study, grounded in analysing existing scholarly writings such as studies, book chapters, and theses. A narrative thematic analysis was adopted to develop themes from the findings. The following themes were developed to present the findings of this study: 1. Newspaper reported cases of South African musicians; 2. Talent-preneurial skills; 3. Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on South African musicians; 4. Effects of piracy in South African music industry. The results of this study demonstrate that poverty has become a common plight and trend that disturbs South African musicians, and this is partly attributable to the lack of career management. This study affirmed that talent-preneurial skills are essential for musicians to effectively manage their careers.
... Yet, in the past few decades, the number of people aspiring to live off their artistic work in a professional manner has increased. For example, the expanding interest in pursuing artistic career trajectories holds true for musicians (Coulangeon, 1999;Nylander, 2014;, writers (Fürst, 2017Lahire, 2010), and visual artists (Abbing, 2002; across vast geographies of the increasingly postindustrial Western world. Nevertheless, the artists who receive payment and remuneration for their work face considerable uncertainty around how they will be compensated and their professional status. ...
... To legitimate his position of making art of particular esteem and quality, he alludes to the inherent pressures of producing art for mass consumption and the risk of becoming a "sell-out". The folk high school employment here becomes a prerequisite to avoid creating art for a mass market and an institutional resource for making art for art's sake (Abbing, 2002;Bourdieu, 1996). Hence, Emil positions himself in the art world by denouncing short-sighted commerce and by laying claim to self-worth through the autonomy warranted to him by his folk high school employment. ...
... references Abbing, H. (2002) double negative, "not lead to unemployment". Such a focus is consistent with increased public and political pressures across the EU and OECD to evaluate art education based on a narrow framework of "learning for earning" (Brown et al., 2020). ...
In this introductory chapter, we want to highlight that there are attractions to art education that go well beyond the narrow economic outcomes of the labour market integration, let alone rosy dreams of achieving winner-take-all fortune and fame. We do so by focusing on Swedish folk high schools as a case that allows us to understand the stakes of art education and lifelong learning at a granular level. The broad array of courses offered at the Swedish folk high schools, which span both elite and amateur-oriented programmes, makes them particularly appealing as empirical sites for uncovering the plurality of values encountered within art education. This chapter introduces the educational institution of Nordic folk high schools to the reader and gives a brief overview of the results provided in the rest of the book. In the chapter, we provide a description of the theoretical concepts and methodological principles of pragmatic sociology which has enabled us to provide a fresh understanding of “what is at stake” in art education.
... Yet, in the past few decades, the number of people aspiring to live off their artistic work in a professional manner has increased. For example, the expanding interest in pursuing artistic career trajectories holds true for musicians (Coulangeon, 1999;Nylander, 2014;, writers (Fürst, 2017Lahire, 2010), and visual artists (Abbing, 2002; across vast geographies of the increasingly postindustrial Western world. Nevertheless, the artists who receive payment and remuneration for their work face considerable uncertainty around how they will be compensated and their professional status. ...
... To legitimate his position of making art of particular esteem and quality, he alludes to the inherent pressures of producing art for mass consumption and the risk of becoming a "sell-out". The folk high school employment here becomes a prerequisite to avoid creating art for a mass market and an institutional resource for making art for art's sake (Abbing, 2002;Bourdieu, 1996). Hence, Emil positions himself in the art world by denouncing short-sighted commerce and by laying claim to self-worth through the autonomy warranted to him by his folk high school employment. ...
... references Abbing, H. (2002) double negative, "not lead to unemployment". Such a focus is consistent with increased public and political pressures across the EU and OECD to evaluate art education based on a narrow framework of "learning for earning" (Brown et al., 2020). ...
This chapter covers how students account for their engagement in art education. While students sometimes engage in strategic action, following an individual plan for their education, we demonstrate that a wide plurality of engagements is characteristic for art education. In particular, engagements at the folk high school come in the form of individual plans, familiar attachment, exploration, and recuperation. These engagements are part of what motivates them to have sustained activities within the arts but is rarely deployed in a single mode of action. These modes of engagement can be conveyed by the metaphors of the folk high school as a hothouse, home, happening, or hospital. The engagements seem to stand at odds with labour market integration. Still, the consequence of the engagements in art education may nevertheless lead the participants back to work or towards a specfic segment of the labour market. Common ambitions of folk high school studies in the arts include taking a break from a job or educational trajectory, exploring a craft to dwell on in the future, or develop an artistic identity and career. To some degree, all these engagements can be justified in relation to the dominant perception of education serving future labour market integration. Nevertheless, to fully grasp the popular appeal of these engagements we also need to acknowledge that they are nested in public values of communitarianism, artistic development and re-growth of cultural participation, and values of human dignity and well-being.
... However, this normative expectation does not mean that economic interests are not latently effective. They express themselves in such a way that the artist behaves economically as a gambler, taking great economic risks without hesitation and having little or no income over a longer period, although hoping that at some point there will also be an economic breakthrough (see Abbing 2002;Heinich 2000a). ...
... The question of allocative justice is central to cultural labor markets (see Abbing 2002;Banks 2017) and to the political economy of cultural production in general (see Mosco 2012). ...
In recent decades, social and economic changes have brought about a growing awareness of the role of art and culture in society. As a result, scholars have turned their attention to a sociological view of arts, developing hermeneutic approaches and conducting empirical research that have led to a wealth of insights into the organization of arts. These studies of the creation, production, distribution, evaluation and consumption of arts are clearly sociological, but they include approaches from other disciplines, notably arts management studies and cultural policy research. This book critically discusses seven major theories of the social organization of arts, with the aim of encouraging their further development.
... Ethical cliffs arise in the arts creation when considering working conditions of artists. Art is perceived as detached from market incentives and fulfills societal roles, oftentimes perceived as 'gift' to be shared with society, which oftentimes entails their suffering endurance to contribute to long-lasting cultural values (Abbing, 2002;Hyde, 2007;Kant, 1790Kant, /1952Nagel, 2003;Sansi, 2014;Taylor, 2011). For instance, page 7 of 54 childlessness is promoted throughout the performing arts. ...
... Artistic quality valuation is not linear in its expression in market terms (Frey & Pommerehne, 1989). Art fulfils a multitude of values that are somehow detached from financial instrumental core functions (Abbing, 2002, Solhjell & Øien, 2012. While finance is measuring value in quantitative objective terms as market response, arts also hold emotional, highly subjective values (Booth, 2017). ...
Art and finance have a symbiotic relationship traditionally. Artists benefit from finance market opportunities to thrive their endeavors, while dealings in the arts enable finance institutions to signal cultural status (Booth, 2017). The idea of money to gravitate around aesthetic value is as old as the Renaissance as the beginning of arts consumption and consumer culture (Guerzoni in De Marchi & Goodwin, 1999; Goldthwaite, 1993; Schmelzing, 2020). Taxation of conspicuous luxury expenses after the Great Plague of the 14th century coupled with finance entertaining a vivid social and cultural life enabled to invest in culture as never before (Piper, 2020; Schmelzing, 2020). Today, Renaissance masterpieces count among the most expensive art assets in the world that – to this day – attract masses from all over the world to experience them. The discounted value of cultural capital expressed in the art is one of the most significant long-term multipliers of nations (Keynes, 1936/1979).
Art and governance have been connected ever since as well. During the Renaissance, wealth control by powerful banking families that were also influential in democratic governance trickled down in cultural heritage creation that generates value in tourism until today (Goldthwaite, 1993). But the relation of regulation and art is a more complicated one. Governmental support of cultural value production is a driver of art.
Law protects art production. For instance, legal certainty based on ownership rights to creative output incentivizes arts production through art product marketability at fair conditions. At the same time, regulating artistic endeavors has been found to crowd out creativity, progressiveness and cultural experience.
In the last decades, a trend of art being used as a security in finance has emerged.
Art as a collateral has unnoticingly widened into a systemic market foundation in the United States (US). Enormous potentials for other continents, like Europe, can be envisioned when imagining that – under the current art loan conditions – art could be kept in place with the loan beneficiary while being materialized for gaining access to finance that could be used strategically for long-term investments in a low-interest rate climate.
Novel finance streams promise to directly invigorate and enable fresh contemporary arts markets. Art as a finance instrument also holds precious opportunities to help artists make a decent living and gain independence from suboptimal art management principal-agent constellations. At the same time, widespread market penetration by the countercyclical, unpredictable and opaque market good ‘art’ that is not analyzed in the economic finance literature appears risky. Arts unnoticingly encroaching the world of finance in serving as widespread securities in the influential US finance market heralds systemic risks that may bring down connected world economies during liquidity crises – a prospect which is not captured in the contemporary economic or finance literature.
This thesis introduces the rising use of art as a collateral as an emerging trend. As this day, we lack a Law & Economics analysis of art regulation with particular attention to art as a security, the presented work investigates the advantages and disadvantages of art as a collateral and regulating such use of the arts as a security in finance. The thesis also envisions policy recommendations aimed at improving the rising market use of art as a collateral.
... This leads many artists to consider having a second or more stable job to provide a steady and predictable income stream while they spend part of their time pursuing music. This phenomenon, described in the literature on artistic labour markets by Abbing (2002) and Menger (1999) as multiple job holding or pluriactivity, is becoming more and more noticeable in many parts of the world, including high-income countries such as Korea (Kwon et al., 2018) and the U.S.A. (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2019;Zhen, 2022). ...
... Earnings tend to be skewed towards a small percentage of artists, just like in many fields of 'showbiz' (Abbing, 2002;Vogel, 2020). This point is confirmed by Plageman (2012), who interviewed Ghanaian highlife musicians as part of an in-depth qualitative study. ...
Economic insecurity represents an existential threat to many workers, not least those in the Creative and Cultural Sector (CCS). Based on recent survey data from Ghanaian musicians gathered between April 2022 and March 2023, this paper presents indicative findings which demonstrate a persistent pension savings gap, with only about one in seven musicians in the sample (14.6%) reporting participation in a pension scheme – explained by both demand-side reasons (i.e. indecision about enrolment, not having the financial wherewithal to contribute regularly or not knowing about existing pension schemes) and supply-side reasons (i.e. limited pension options developed with the involvement of musicians). The paper also finds that while education level, age, location, and marital/family status appear to be important factors, in relative terms, there was little evidence to suggest that any group was more likely than the other to participate in a pension scheme. To improve pensions uptake, the paper argues that a long overdue, deliberate policy strategy should involve piloting a dedicated group personal pension scheme for musicians and testing savings commitments in the case of voluntary schemes over the long term and short term, respectively, with both going hand in hand with pension literacy programmes and incentives, wherever necessary.
... Studies of cultural production and artists' labour show how artists and cultural producers as an occupational group differ from other groups (Bourdieu, 1993;Throsby, 1994;Abbing, 2002Abbing, , 2004Menger, 2006;Alper & Wassall, 2006;McRobbie, 2016;Towse, 2020). These studies reveal how the labour of artists and cultural producers is entangled in a blend of values generated through creative work, e.g., the value of artistic work, the value of artistic recognition and the value of economic profit (cf. ...
... Furthermore, we had to define our core subjects of study in line with the theoretical ambition of analysing digital creative labour using perspectives from the sociology of cultural production and previous sociological studies on the working conditions of artists (cf. Menger, 1999, Abbing, 2002, Alper and Wassall, 2006, McRobbie, 2016, Bille et al., 2017. ...
Cultural production is to an increasing degree characterized by digitalization, mediatization, platformization and the use of social media. In this article, we investigate how digital cultural labour is experienced by platform-dependent cultural producers. Based on qualitative in-depth interviews with more than twenty Norwegian content creators, we more specifically analyse how they describe and valuate their products and production, the online communication of their labour, and the careers and strategies of digital cultural labour. The production of content is experienced as a demanding and continuous endeavour, being relentlessly quantified through clicks and metrics. Furthermore, the content creators show the psychological toll of being the product or a more or less integrated part of the product. Partly because of the challenges of continuous content production and communication with a community, as well as because of the unpredictable power of algorithms, we see creators branching out, spreading risk, or combining platform-dependency with -independency. This tendency only partly explains why digital cultural labour in the Norwegian context does not tend to represent a career end in itself, but a means to reach other and/or more long-term career goals. In the Norwegian context, this tendency is also explained by other factors: the welfare-oriented and inclusive Nordic model of cultural policy, which includes a public broadcaster integrating social media actively in its portfolio, as well as a general risk-and precarity-reducing welfare society.
... On the other hand, as we also see in modern times, many artists are proverbially incapable of securing a stable, let alone prosperous, livelihood (Abbing, 2008). In the context of the above argument, but also the data described in the previous paragraph, it is not clear to what extent being an artist provides an advantage in sexual selection. ...
Human fascination with art has deep evolutionary roots, yet its role remains a puzzle for evolutionary theory. Although its widespread presence across cultures suggests a potential adaptive function, determining its evolutionary origins requires more comprehensive evidence beyond mere universality or assumed survival benefits. This paper introduces and tests the Collector Hypothesis, which suggests that artworks serve as indicators of collectors’ surplus wealth and social status, offering greater benefits to collectors than to artists in mating and reproductive contexts. Our study among Indigenous Papuan communities provides preliminary support for the Collector Hypothesis, indicating that, compared to artists, collectors are perceived as having higher social status and greater attractiveness to women. These findings provide unique insights into Papuan communities and contribute to the ongoing discussion about art’s adaptive significance of art by suggesting that artistic capacities may benefit not only creators but also those who accumulate and display art. Further research in diverse cultural contexts is needed for a comprehensive understanding of this interplay.
... De studie met de sprekende titel Why are artists poor? van Hans Abbing (2002) stelt alvast dat er meer aan de hand is. De artiest laat zich volgens de Nederlandse kunstenaar/econoom immers niet alleen leiden door externe prikkels zoals symbolisch en economisch kapitaal. ...
De Franse socioloog Pierre Bourdieu heeft een belangrijke stempel op de kunstsociologie gedrukt. In dit artikel plaatst Pascal Gielen vanuit empirische bevindingen enkele kanttekeningen bij de premissen die Bourdieus veldtheorie veronderstelt. De auteur eindigt met een pleidooi voor een meer symmetrische kunstsociologie die een beter evenwicht vindt tussen onderzoekers en onderzoekssubjecten, tussen empirie en theorie, en last but not least: tussen mensen en kunstwerken.
... In this case, we explored the potential of using thirdarm robotics, virtual reality (VR) scanning, modelling and three-dimensional (3D) printing with precious materials, like silver or gold. Given the economic challenging conditions crafters now face (Abbing 2002;Mangset et al. 2018), we explored the potential of this technology in relation to the craft as part of the present consumption and production system. Through the practice of renovation work, understood here as the final step of surface work on the production line, the outcome and results of this comprehensive exploration were at first somewhat disappointing. ...
This review article evaluates theories and on the entanglement of matter and meaning, elaborating and exploring the potential outcomes of craft in research processes. Exemplified through a collaborative exploration between me as a silversmith and programmers at the Mechatronic Innovation Lab (MIL) in Grimstad, Norway, I explore, through these theories, how renovation work served as a diffraction apparatus in exploring the relation between traditional craft and emerging mechatronic technologies in light of the concept of sustainability. Renovation work is, in this setting, understood as cutting, filing, grinding and polishing, often the final but nevertheless essential step in a production process. This type of surface work accentuates here how it is possible to not only see traditional crafts as carriers of intangible value linked to identity but also as a type of knowledge powerful of providing insights into the entanglement of matter and meaning. Through uniting different knowledge systems, like the subjective knowledge in the situated understanding of material, tools, setting and processes, and more objective knowledge, typically for observation, readings and purely cognitive activities, renovation work exposed, in this case, some of the limitations of automation and provided unexpected findings on the relationship between body and machine.
... There is no breaking of art's spell through mass reproduction. 92 Instead the status of art is augmented and expanded, since the social function of art as a proxy for class depends not on the actual inaccessibility of works, but on their perception by the human audience as inaccessible, rarified works that are not generally available as commodity products. However, exclusivity does not require scarcity, even if it implies it. ...
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Art, AI and Culture interrogates the aesthetic heritage of Modernism as it informs contemporary cultural applications of AI which demonstrate there is no escape from the kaleidoscopic lineage of colonialism where the status of "human" and all the rights that entails were withheld from the colonized in general, and from slaves, labor, and women specifically. This analysis theorizes the social identity threat posed by AI's challenges to existing social, cultural, political, and economic orders. Digital technology is not exempt from this historical lineage that transforms familiar questions of economic displacement caused by machine learning and digital automation into new battles in an on-going conflict over social status and position. This cultural approach to AI reveals the ways that it transforms expressions of identity, leisure and luxury into opportunities for profit extraction. Social phenomena, (including racism, sexism, and nationalism), capture individuals in a web of systemic control where digital automation provides a mechanism preserving the existing hierarchies and social status that it might otherwise challenge. Drawing on a reconception of capitalism as a proxy for social status and position, this study critiques of the fantasy that replacing all human labor will create a fully automated luxury utopia without bias, oppression, or social change.
... This raises questions about the socio-economic devaluation of culture and sustainability regarding this free-to-access content, which many of the festival producers keenly expressed in their interviews. This supports the notion that 'paid for' cultural consumption (particularly on a 1 5 1 scale of mass consumption) is privileged over free-to-access content (Abbing, 2002). Many of the interviewees based in non-profit or smaller partly commercial festivals expressed fears that offering freeto-access content online would decommercialise their cultural production and practice. ...
... In short, while artistic freedom depends on creative practice driven by artistic purpose, money is viewed with suspicion because it pursues external commercial goals (Bille et al., 2017). This external influence is seen to undermine artistic freedom by bowing to the demands of the consumer, and typical Western images of the artist or artists living in poverty are frequently assigned a positive value (Abbing, 2008(Abbing, , 2011. While such images also prevail in other parts of the world, our informants referred to resistance provoked by a different version of this challenge: social inequalities in Chile and across South America. ...
Much of the research on cultural and creative industries has been ‘Western-centric’, but recent interest into cultural and creative industries in the Global South confirms that this conceptual frame is not always directly transferable. This first comprehensive analysis of the last three decades of cultural and creative industries in Santiago de Chile is based on detailed participant observations and multiple in-depth interviews with cultural professionals in the city. The findings indicate that ‘Western’ economic narratives fail to capture the role of Chile's political and cultural context, and especially the socio-urban fabric of Santiago itself, in the eclectic mix of practices that has developed across various locales. The city's self-transformation can be seen to embody a process of autopoiesis, a concept first proposed by Chilean scholars. This cultural autopoiesis has been impacted by external shocks that include COVID-19. The study advances existing empirical and theoretical understandings of the development of cultural and creative industries in the Global South and beyond.
... This insecurity also affects several agents in the art world and its market. For example, the majority of artists are moonlighting insofar as they are unable to support themselves solely through the income derived from their creative practices (Abbing, 2008;NEA, 2019, pp. 5-7). ...
This article presents, from an institutional perspective, the vulnerability faced by many agents of the art world and its market. We defend that this vulnerability is due to two key factors. The first one, is the uncertainty regarding what is art. The second one, is the Cash Reserve Ratio with low reserve requirements. As stated in this article, money is a useful mechanism to reduce the uncertainty. Nevertheless, the Cash Reserve Ratio with low reserve requirements is not sustainable and ends in economic precariousness. The approach of this article is theoretical, and presents conclusions in a cogent and generalized form. The main conclusion of this text is that an economic system sustained in monetary units linked to standard resources could decrease the agents within the art world and its market. Nevertheless, those agents could develop their activity in a more optimal situation.
... The arts are not an isolated practice. Indeed, even when there is a private purpose, art has a public benefit that permeates society in terms of education and knowledge (Abbing, 2008). In Venice, artistic activities and practices have a public purpose geared towards contributing to the public domain, as occurs in public entrepreneurship (see Table 1). ...
This article examines art collectives in Venice that use their artistic and cultural projects to act as public entrepreneurs seeking to improve urban welfare and elicit social change for reasons of societal betterment. These ventures are developed against a backdrop of ongoing socioeconomic challenges arising from exploitative tourism in the city. Interviews with some art collective members revealed that: (1) their local rootedness is shaped by issues of gentrification and a search for a city that benefits all; (2) their core values are translated into artistic propositions addressing local demands and institutional voids and (3) their private goals have a public-service background. Our study unveils a unique type of entrepreneur that mediates local demands but has no significant impact at the policy level, thus only scratching the surface of institutional change. This insight contributes to our understanding of artists as public entrepreneurs who, despite their use of activist language channelling public demands, are constrained by the very institutional voids they seek to close.
... Dobrow (2012) and Dobrow Riza and Heller (2015) have suggested that careers in music are rooted in the suspension of disbelief and a commitment to artistry and musicality. Artists more broadly have been characterized as having "a chronic underestimation of the risk involved and the chances of success" (Lingo & Tepper, 2013, p. 338), a point also made by Abbing (2002). Put simply, individuals must believe in themselves, have high hopes, and remain optimistic, if they are to make successful careers as musicians. ...
Being a career musician is typified by high risk. Despite low earnings, many musicians pursue their careers driven by self-belief, high expectations, and optimism. However, failure to obtain the success many optimistically aspire to has been seen to pose psychosocial risks relating to mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression. While studies have shown dispositional optimism as having many health-related benefits, it has also been conceptualized negatively in encouraging a tendency toward loss-making in one key area: gambling. In this article, we develop the argument that the risks of professional music-making are analogous to gambling, and the optimism displayed by many aspiring career musicians may therefore represent a form of what Berlant calls cruel optimism, with negative effects on mental health and wellbeing. In doing so, we draw on Berlant's theoretical position to examine the potentially harmful intersections between risk-taking behaviors and creative desire. Drawing also on our clinical experience, we consider when and how musicians who are emotionally struggling with their work might find it advantageous to reorient their careers, or even withdraw from the labor market altogether, to support their health and wellbeing, and the challenges around the loss of identity these can present.
... Although many empirical studies, as I will show in a moment, point to multiple roles of artists, either-or thinking is deeply embedded in institutions and reproduced through a variety of discourses. While it is repeatedly underlined that autonomy is to be understood in relative terms (e.g., Fraser 1996;Abbing 2002;Hebert and Szefer 2013) constant conflict with the institutionalised ideal of art prevails (Abbing 2023) and suggests an artist stripped off all relationships and context. ...
... Literatura akademikoak dioenez, arteari edota sorkuntzari lotutako lanbideak oso bereziak dira. COVID-19aren aurretik gauzatutako ikerketen arabera, eremu artistikoetan aritzen diren langileen batez besteko diru-sarrerak, musikarienak adibidez, oso baxuak izaten dira (Abbing, 2008). Hori dela eta, sorkuntzari lotutako langileek askotan beste lan batzuk ere izaten dituzte (Throsby eta Zednik, 2011; Longden eta Throsby, 2020) 1 . ...
Ikerketa honek COVID-19ak euskal musikariengan izan duen eragina du aztergai. Pandemian zehar ezarritako itxialdi zein bestelako mugek (ordutegiak, edukiera-mugak) kalte handia eragin diete artean eta kulturan aritzen diren langileei, haien artean musikariei. 2021eko maiatza eta ekaina bitartean MUSIKARI elkartearen bazkideei bideratutako inkesta batean pandemiak haien jardueran eta sarreretan izan duen eraginaz galdetu diegu. Aldi berean, sektorearen etorkizunari zein norberaren espektatibei lotutako galderak ere jaso dira inkestan. Jasotako emaitzek begi-bistan uzten dute COVID-19ak euskal musikariengan izan dueneragin negatiboa. Eragin negatibo hori era homogeneoan gertatu da musikari mota ezberdinen artean. Etorkizunari lotutako espektatibei dagokienez, ez dira espero bezain negatiboak. Etorkizuneko espektatibek, zein bizitza-gogobetetzearen mailak, lotura handia erakusten dute musikariaren ezaugarri orokorrekiko.
... The cornerstone of the legitimacy of state funding for the arts lies in the existence of market failure (Hans 2002). As a result of such failure, the government will support artistic creation in direct or indirect ways.'Modern ...
State funding in support of art development is a crucial area of research in arts management. After the 1980s, China began to reform its cultural system. Drawing on the historical experience of Western countries in subsidizing art, the Chinese government made constant adjustments to its system. In 2013, the China National Arts Fund (CNAF) was established, indicating the Chinese government’s efforts to enhance the modernization level of arts management and explore funding methods with Chinese characteristics. Based on quantitative data and case studies and through the analysis of the quantity, types, institutional ownership, and regional trends of dance programmes funded by CNAF (2014–2019), this paper concludes that the current funding trend is presented with three characteristics: differentiation classification, imbalance, localization of content and theme. The study found that CNAF is facing three challenges and dilemmas: (1) the effectiveness and diversity of its guiding function; (2) the level of its fine-grained and flat management; (3) the performance evaluation mechanism of funded programmes. Based on the findings and discussion of the research, this paper proposes policy suggestions and future research directions.
... I take a more narrow definition of artists-similar to that by Galligan and Alper (1998) using Census data on self-employment and occupations-unlike Iyengar et al. (2019) who take more of a sectoral rather than occupational approach to looking at cultural employment, and consequently find that artists are roughly 0.5% of the population as of 2021, or 760,315 in total (up from 0.4% in 2006, or 595,552 in total). 4 Abbing (2002) also takes a similar view of the arts, but provides a more conceptual discussion and hypothesis behind low earnings in the art, pointing out myths of high earnings and fame that attract new entrants only to be disappointed when they face reality. Such myths are often perpetuated by the occasional artist who "makes it big" even if many others struggle just to get by. ...
Using individual-level data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) between 2006 and 2021, I study the labor market experiences of artists. First, I find a decline in the relative earnings of artists to non-artists from zero to a 15% disadvantage. After controlling for demographic differences, the decline is sharper, declining from a 15% earnings disadvantage to 30%. That the inclusion of demographic controls raises the earnings gap suggests there is positive selection into the arts. Second, these differences decline in magnitude to 4.4%, but remain statistically significant, after exploiting variation among artists and non-artists in the same industry-year and major occupation. Third, when restricting the set of individuals to those with at least a college degree, those with a fine arts degree also incur an earnings and employment penalty even if they work in the arts. These results highlight the increasing financial precariousness of artists over the past decade.
... Increasing inequality and opportunity gaps, discrimination of sexual minorities and nascent racism also provoke artists' concern. Many of them, moreover, find the option of applying their artistic skills in hybrid, embedded work rewarding and fascinating (see, e.g., Abbing, 2002). ...
Finnish Journal of Music Education.
https://sites.uniarts.fi/web/fjme/archive
We review the landscape for SIMM (Socially Impactful Music Making) activities in four countries (Belgium, Colombia, Finland, and the UK) by interrogating a sample of publicly available material on the policy and funding environment in each country, and by analysing an inventory of several hundred individual projects and organisations undertaking this kind of work in these countries. We identify commonalities and differences between countries in relation to the following questions: What target groups are prominent? How is the work delivered? What kinds of outcomes are prioritised? To what extent are social objectives implicit or explicit? How is such work funded? What types of occupational contexts exist? Although there are many interesting differences between countries, there are clear commonalities, including: strong emphasis on work with children and young people; a broad range of musical genres; high dependence on public funding; and a prioritisation of inclusivity and access. These similarities imply that, despite local specificities, there may be a relatively unified international profession, with similar goals, approaches, and outcomes, though this hypothesis will be tested by further research. The results of this study will help to refine the way in which subsequent in-depth investigations are undertaken to clarify the similarities and differences between the practices, understandings, and beliefs of individual musicians doing SIMM work in each country.
... This paper seeks to explore the experiences of cultural workers engaged in hybrid work as a tension between structure and agency within a particular field of labor in the CCI, the performing arts. Although much research has been done about the CCI and its high levels of job discontinuity (Abbing 2008;Gill, Pratt 2008;McRobbie 2016;Menger 2014), only a few studies have paid attention on how cultural workers are affected by hybrid work and how they cope with it. In their qualitative study of highly educated solo self-employed workers from different labor fields in Italy, Murgia and Pulignano (2021) show that hybrid work entails blurring boundaries in different dimensions. ...
This paper investigates hybrid work in the German cultural and creative industries
(CCI), focusing on the performing arts. The share of hybrid work triggered
by low incomes is increasing, meaning hybrid work needs to be addressed
through the notion of precarity. However, little is known about how people
cope with hybrid work and what particular labor conditions provoke hybrid
work. Drawing on Bourdieu’s field sociology, this article aims to contribute to
a deeper understanding of hybrid work, with particular reference to the role
of agency. In this article, hybrid work is understood as a differentiation of
positions within the field of the performing arts in independent and publicly
funded theaters. This conceptualization is empirically analyzed by investigating
hybrid workers’ strategies within a typology of hybrid workers: (1) reputationwinner;
(2) position-defender; and (3) position-seeker. This article demonstrates
the relationship between the trajectory, position, and standpoint within the
performing arts, showing how actors try to improve, defend, or establish a
position in the field. It is argued that hybrid work reflects a particular state of
insecurity which embodies blurring boundaries of self-employed and employed
labor and thus comprises a fuzzy work status.
Keywords: hybrid work, cultural industries, performing arts, precarity, field
sociology.
... While it is evident that the cultural and creative industries have grown and evolved and have potential for further growth ( Buitrago & Duque, 2013 ), it is nonetheless di cult for artists to fully apprehend the value they create for the economy. While scholars and arts sector leaders recognize the creative economy's fi nancial potential, the precarity of a career in the arts and cultural sector remains a constant ( Abbing, 2008 ;Banks, 2017 ). In recent years, the term "creative entrepreneurship" has been used both to re-brand artist self-employment activities and as an alternative to institutionally remunerated employment, that is, focusing on the creation of cultural and creative ventures to participate in the creation of wealth and economic development. ...
... They may also apply for literary grants, such as those that come from the government for the lending of books at libraries. However, similar to other artists, few writers get substantial recognition or make a living as authors alone (Abbing, 2002;Brook et al., 2020;Gerber, 2017;Gross & Musgrave, 2020;McRobbie, 2015;Menger, 2014). Across the creative industries, there is an oversupply of artists, and even artists who have achieved some success often face unemployment or underemployment (Lingo & Tepper, 2013;Menger, 2014). ...
Most artists who venture into an artistic career discontinue after their debut work. This article contributes to the understanding of early artistic career discontinuation and continuation by drawing on 53 mainly longitudinal interviews with early-career Swedish novelists. The article develops interactionist theories of careers and social worlds, and suggests that continuation of literary careers depends on realizing an artistic identity and the alignment of trajectories in life, thereby providing time for creative work to emerge. The alignments are arrangements of tra-jectories that work together, and aligning trajectories makes it possible to legitimize an artistic identity in relation to competing identity claims (and roles) from other trajectories in life. The legitimation creates normative acceptance of the writing identity and activity. The ease of claiming a literary writing identity depends on a person's author type, finances, engagements in work and family, and time management skills. The article proposes that creative career continuation is influenced by historical, situational and cultural availability, as well as the ability to claim an artistic identity and manage intermingling trajectories and priorities in life.
... The distinction between artwork purchasing events and other commodities is that these art purchasing events include social gatherings, public donations, and intellectual exchanges (Quesenberry & Sykes, 2008). Furthermore, Abbing (2004) stated that the value structure in the art market is two-sided and asymmetrical. Although the art market is about money and profit, it is not open to the public. ...
Presently, the hospitality industry's development, particularly the hotel industry materialised in Malaysia, has equally improved the nation's art industry. These are a positive development, especially towards arts in Malaysia. Besides being made as a new market for the nation's art industry, it is also a solution for the survival issue among the fresh new artists in Malaysia. To establish the hospitality industry as a new market for the nation's art industry, a study towards the types and the styles of painting is needed. Therefore, the research objectives are to identify the types of painting often purchased by the hotel and analyse the painting styles, which have become the priority for Malaysia's hotel industry. This study was conducted on five selected hotels using a qualitative approach. Besides, this research also applied the exploratory method case study which the researcher act as an observer to assess the paintings purchased by the hotel. The outcome of this research will be made as a guideline, 22 Malaysian Journal of Sustainable Environment especially for new artists to come up with a type and style of painting that meets the criteria of the hotels in Malaysia. The research also contributes to Malaysia's theoretical arts, considering that there is minimal research like thisin Malaysia before.
... It was mainly new ensembles that introduced change and innovation and, as a result, they became successful. Eventually a more flexible funding system and criticism of various key performers stimulated the older theatre 92 (Menger & Gurgand, 1996), (Benhamou, 2000), (Abbing, 2002) and (Heian et al., 2008). 93 These findings are based on Dutch data found in various SCP reports that focused on developments that affected demand in the performing arts and detailed various traits of audiences. ...
Artists in all of the art disciplines throughout the West are on average
poor, and many of their art careers are unsustainable in terms of making
a living. This is, in part no doubt, because of the exceptional appeal of the
arts as a profession, which originates in the modern human desire to work
in a field where one can express oneself. In this context, I focus on
various new developments, like those of artists with a hybrid art practice,
more and more self-taught artists and new bohemian artists who care little about money and success. I also look at art education, at the fading boundaries between the art disciplines and state support of the arts. I conclude that, for the time being, careers in the arts will on the whole remain unsustainable… and, furthermore, that this is not totally bad.
... Es ahí donde se pone el foco en el rol del productor: el creativo, el artista, tradicionalmente asumido como sufriente primer eslabón de la actividad cultural o de las denominadas industrias culturales. Un sistema tan excepcional en su funcionamiento económico, como altamente cruel y desigual (Abbing, 2008) que siempre ha despreciado y maltratado a los artistas. ...
En el entorno de una nueva economía post-fordista, el capitalismo cultural ha encontrado en la irrupción de la cultura blockchain y el llamado cryptoarte un importante aliado. Los precursores de esta nueva vertiente artística plantean la llegada de los NFTs como un elemento disruptor, capaz de solucionar los problemas que ha tenido el arte digital hasta nuestros días. Mientras tanto, los críticos afirman que, en el entorno blockchain, el arte sería poco más que mero mecanismo de alimentación del juego especulativo de la economía financiera post-capitalista. Este texto trata de abordar algunos de los resortes que permiten entrever las causas del porqué de la fuerte irrupción del llamado cryptoarte en el sistema artístico tradicional y el mercado del arte. En esa línea se abordarán preguntas sobre la utilidad y valor del arte en la cultura digital, su papel en la economía blockchain, así como el rol del trabajador artístico y sus condiciones en el nuevo entorno de producción, distribución y venta de arte.
In the environment of a new post-fordist economy, cultural capitalism has found in the irruption of blockchain culture and the so-called cryptoart an important ally. The forerunners of this new artistic aspect pose the arrival of NFTs as a disruptive element, capable of solving the problems that digital art has had up to the present day. Meanwhile, critics claim that, in the blockchain environment, art would be little more than a mere feeding mechanism for the speculative game of the post-capitalist financial economy. This text tries to address some of the springs that allow us to glimpse the causes of the strong irruption of the so-called crypto-art in the traditional art system and the art market. Accordingly, questions about the usefulness and value of art in digital culture, the role of art within the blockchain economy or the role of the art worker and his or her conditions in the new environment of production, distribution and sale of art will be addressed.
... * * * Если экономика позволяет объяснить экстремальное неравенство, то социология нужна, чтобы понять, почему люди готовы жертвовать своим благосостоянием ради призрачного успеха на творческом поприще, ведь широко распространенные бедность и прекарность -это неотъемлемые особенности креативных профессий. Так, сегодня многие исследователи-социологи, интервьюируя музыкантов, писателей, блогеров и т. д., приходят к однозначному выводу: творчество сопряжено с высокими рисками как экономического, так и психоэмоционального характера (отчуждение) (см., например: [Abbing, 2002;Gross, Musgrave, 2020;Дерезевиц, 2021]). Стало быть, растущий спрос на творческие профессии довольно сложно объяснить чисто экономически. ...
The article examines the prospects for the transformation of the class structure in the era of post-capitalism. The second part of the article deals with the internal antagonism of the post-capitalist class structure. For this, it is proposed to look at the economics of creativity as an expanding area of productive activity, where the laws of capitalist accumulation do not directly operate. Creativity as the creation of non-material goods (from artistic images to scientific theories) is considered the substantive basis of post-capitalism, and therefore is comprehended in a utopian way with an emphasis on freedom of self-realization. Nevertheless, the article substantiates that the “decline of capitalism” can lead to even greater socio-economic inequality (from the power of 1% to the power of 0.1%) and the corresponding tragedy of the impersonaliat as a class of “creative losers”.
In 2023, a group of cultural associations and nonprofit performing arts organisations in Portugal filed a lawsuit against the Portuguese Ministry of Culture. They claimed that they had been treated unfairly in their applications for public cultural funding and sought to challenge the outcomes of the 2022 grant support process. This article raises two key questions: How reliant are the performing arts on public support, and why do artists sometimes resort to confrontational actions against the public entities that provide funding? Drawing on field research that includes participant observation, interviews, round-table discussions, and published statistics, the article explores the sustainability of the performing arts sector, the degree of dependence on public funding sources, and the impact of this support on project development. In addition to the analysis, the article highlights the economic and social conditions surrounding the nonprofit arts and the opportunities and risks associated with project-based activities. Furthermore, it discusses the influence of a socio-political agenda that underlies all public funding initiatives. The findings suggest that several critical issues related to public support for the arts should be integrated into a broader and more profound discussion about the sustainability of the performing arts and the type of support governments should provide.
Given the growing understanding in cultural economics of artists as entrepreneurs, we consider whether art collectors can be modeled as fellow risk-takers, that is, analogous to venture-stage investors. Employing a unique dataset of the collection of twentieth-century United States-based collectors Burton and Emily Hall Tremaine, we build a conceptual framework of criteria for collectors as venture-stage investors. We consider risk (how early in an artist’s career they are collecting), reputation (collectors’ museum-related strategy), and rebalancing (donation and sales). Regarding risk, we find that 69% of works in our study were purchased within a year of when the works were made indicating venture-stage risk-taking, though with notably longer holding periods than within a traditional venture “exit” strategy. Regarding reputation, we consider the market impact of the 1984 Twentieth Century Masters show of the Tremaine collection and find the value of the artworks rose fivefold from the museum exhibition to the auction four years later. We build an index of artists whose works were in the 1988 and 1991 Tremaine auctions and also find strong indications of the importance of the timing of those sales to the returns achieved. Regarding rebalancing, we look at museum donation strategy as part of investment analysis, and find substantially different patterns of annualized ROI and holding period for auctioned and donated works. This study contributes to our understanding of art collectors as risk-takers and to the portfolio management of art collections.
Art marketing has been systematically implemented with the goal of connecting works of art with audiences. There has been much research from this perspective. However, the specific involvement and practice of marketing by artists themselves has not been examined. Due to the unique circumstances of art, art marketing has placed more emphasis on respecting the artist's expression than on customer orientation, while artists have distanced themselves from marketing. In recent years, contemporary art has attracted the attention of the business world in Japan, and new opportunities are being created for artists in this field. This new situation provides an opportunity for artists to participate in the value creation process that has previously been left to others. In this study, we examine the involvement of artists in value creation as a basis for exploring the possibilities and challenges of marketing by artists. While discussing the stance of artists who distance themselves from economic activities, we clarify the value creation process unique to art and conclude that audiences and stakeholders are key to implementation of art marketing by artists.
This thesis investigates the discursive nature of the new museum definition proposed by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) in 2019. By using Critical Discourse Analysis, this thesis identifies the presence of democracy and inclusivity as an overarching theme in the new definition. Making use of Queer and critical heritage studies theory to problematize this thematic presence and by analyzing the textual, extratextual, and broader discursive and social aspects of the new definition, this thesis argues that the new definition constitutes a type of Authorized Heritage Discourse that reproduces Eurocentric meaning-making power imbalances in the international heritage sector. In doing so, this thesis argues that the new
definition converges two discursive and policy practices of particular Eurocentric and undemocratic nature, creative industries discourse and homonationalist inclusivity policy promotion. Finally, this thesis identifies critical issues of democratic authorization and authentication within ICOM and argues that these might represent the root causes of the discursive issues identified in the new definition.
Purpose: The production of science in each country reflects its development, and the sustainable progress of each nation is contingent upon its specific capabilities. The advancement of human, financial, economic, social, cultural, and political resources is a cornerstone of sustainable development in any country. Higher education plays a crucial role in cultivating specialized human resources required by society, equipping them with the necessary skills for their respective roles. Evaluation is a key factor that can shift education from a static state to a dynamic trajectory. Higher education and the contributions of professors are pivotal in the progress of any country. The evaluation of professors in the field of painting holds particular significance due to the valuable and substantial outputs they generate, many of which cannot be adequately identified and assessed using the standard criteria for faculty promotion. This study aims to explore the evaluation criteria and research productivity of faculty members specializing in painting at the Public and Islamic Azad universities in Tehran, as well as their perspectives on evaluation criteria.
Methodology: The current research is of an applied nature, specifically a descriptive survey for data collection. The scientometric approach was utilized in this research. The statistical population consisted of 30 individuals out of 61 painting professors from Public and Islamic Azad universities in Tehran between 2018 and 2021. The selection criteria included having at least an assistant professor degree, three years of teaching experience, and the willingness of participants to take part in the research. Among these 30 individuals, 23 participated, with 4 engaging in specialized interviews and 19 responding to a questionnaire. The research instrument was a researcher-developed questionnaire comprising 56 questions. 26 questions were directly derived from the regulations for faculty members' promotion in universities and higher education institutions under the Ministry of Science's supervision (Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, 2016) (explicit outputs), while 30 questions were related to significant outputs in the field of painting, either implicitly mentioned in the regulations or identified through qualitative interviews with painting experts (semi-obvious outputs). The questionnaire's content validity was confirmed by four faculty members, and its reliability, assessed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient, was 0.765. Data analysis was performed using SPSS software.
Findings: The findings revealed that among the various types of research outputs, internal scientific research articles, promotional scientific articles, and conference articles each received the highest score of 91.3 percent. Conversely, works related to book criticism had a frequency of 17.4 percent. Foreign articles indexed in the Web of Science, participation in international research projects, and guiding bachelor's theses were the least common types of research works among professors, each scoring 21.7 percent. The results indicated that while many professors included publications in their resumes, most lacked valid foreign articles indexed in WOS and Scopus. For those who did have such articles, the average number was only about two, which is notably low for professors of this scientific caliber.
Among the semi-obvious outputs, showcasing works in individual internal exhibitions, displaying works in group internal exhibitions, creating artwork, and mastering a foreign language all have a 100 percent frequency. The history of membership in ethics committees in research has a 13 percent frequency. Exhibiting works in individual foreign exhibitions has a 13 percent frequency while being the editor or manager of magazines in the field of visual arts has a 14.7 percent frequency. These two have the lowest frequency among the semi-obvious outputs. According to painting professors, guides for specialized doctorate theses, showcasing works in individual foreign exhibitions, participating in international research projects, and teaching workshops are considered the most important for the promotion of professors in this field. On the other hand, book reviews, internal conference papers, thesis counseling for Bachelor's degrees, history of membership in ethics committees in research, book editing and compilation, and guidance of bachelor's theses are considered the least important.
According to professors, there was no significant difference between obvious and semi-obvious outputs. Ignoring artworks and exhibitions as the outputs of this field, many professors, not familiar with the latest research methods in art, avoid international trips and conferences due to financial problems and the lack of motivation among professors and officials to upgrade their scientific rank. The arrangement was the most important obstacle to the fair promotion of painting professors.
Conclusion: In general, based on the results obtained from the present research, it can be concluded that the current regulations for the promotion of professors are inadequate in fairly evaluating art professors. Structural reforms and practical measures are needed to enhance the evaluation of professors in this field.
According to the research findings, it is recommended to incorporate items endorsed by selected professors into the promotion regulations to address the lack of availability or inadequate presentation of certain outputs. Additionally, in response to concerns raised by professors regarding methodological issues in painting research, it is advised to organize skill enhancement workshops for faculty members in this field. Lastly, it is proposed that the individuals responsible for revising the promotion regulations include dedicated sections for specific disciplines like painting to ensure equitable competition and recognition within other research-oriented disciplines.
Anything that can be automated, will be. The “magic” that digital technology has brought us — self-driving cars, Bitcoin, high frequency trading, the internet of things, social networking, mass surveillance, the 2009 housing bubble — has not been considered from an ideological perspective. The Critique of Digital Capitalism identifies how digital technology has captured contemporary society in a reification of capitalist priorities, and also describes digital capitalism as an ideologically “invisible” framework that is realized in technology. Written as a series of articles between 2003 and 2015, the book provides a broad critical scope for understanding the inherent demands of capitalist protocols for expansion without constraint (regardless of social, legal or ethical limits) that are increasingly being realized as autonomous systems that are no longer dependent on human labor or oversight and implemented without social discussion of their impacts. The digital illusion of infinite resources, infinite production, and no costs appears as an “end to scarcity,” whereby digital production supposedly eliminates costs and makes everything equally available to everyone. This fantasy of production without consumption hides the physical costs and real-world impacts of these technologies.
The critique introduced in this book develops from basic questions about how digital technologies directly change the structure of society: why is “Digital Rights Management” not only the dominant “solution” for distributing digital information, but also the only option being considered? During the burst of the “Housing Bubble” burst 2009, why were the immaterial commodities being traded of primary concern, but the actual physical assets and the impacts on the people living in them generally ignored? How do surveillance (pervasive monitoring) and agnotology (culturally induced ignorance or doubt, particularly the publication of inaccurate or misleading scientific data) coincide as mutually reinforcing technologies of control and restraint? If technology makes the assumptions of its society manifest as instrumentality — then what ideology is being realized in the form of the digital computer? This final question animates the critical framework this analysis proposes.
Digital capitalism is a dramatically new configuration of the historical dynamics of production, labor and consumption that results in a new variant of historical capitalism. This contemporary, globalized network of production and distribution depends on digital capitalism’s refusal of established social restraints: existing laws are an impediment to the transcendent aspects of digital technology. Its utopian claims mask its authoritarian result: the superficial “objectivity” of computer systems are supposed to replace established protections with machinic function — the uniform imposition of whatever ideology informs the design. However, machines are never impartial: they reify the ideologies they are built to enact. The critical analysis of capitalist ideologies as they become digital is essential to challenging this process. Contesting their domination depends on theoretical analysis. This critique challenges received ideas about the relationship between labor, commodity production and value, in the process demonstrating how the historical Marxist analysis depends on assumptions that are no longer valid. This book therefore provides a unique, critical toolset for the analysis of digital capitalist hegemonics.
This open access publication contains the full text of the book.
Dance involves the totality and living experience of man from the prehistoric times till date. It was part of all his daily activities such as his work, communication and even in his worship of the gods and ancestors (Nigeria inclusive). To this extent, the Nigeria dance practice has developed greatly even in the face of multi ethnicity as it has given birth to various indigenous dances. These indigenous dances have also been the raw materials to every form of contemporary dances that has emerged over the years. Diverse platforms have also surfaced to help sustain Nigerian dances such as National Arts Festival (NAFEST), Nigeria University Theatre Arts Festival (NUTAF) and the trend of dance reality shows that has been the order of the day within recent times in Nigeria. An undoubted reality television show that has done greatly in the sustainability of Nigerian dances is Maltina Family Dance All Reality Television Show. The functionalist theory of dance is used to unveil the reality show which has been able to adjust to bridge the gap between the prehistoric era and the contemporary or modern era by using technological advances to keep the dance practice in shape. This research will examine Maltina Family Dance All Reality Television Show within the context of dance praxis and the immense contributions to dance practice and sustainability in Nigeria with a view to how it has put Nigeria indigenous dances to practice since the inception till date in the face of globalization and industrialization. It will conclude that the dance reality show has provided dance practitioners both with dance repertoires and engagement with diverse indigenous dances as well as rewards both as individuals and as professionals. Keywords: Dance, Dance Reality Show, Dance Art / Practice, Maltina Dance All Family Reality Television Show.
Executive Summary:
• This report contains findings based on interviews with seventeen music creators living and working in Denmark, all of whom saw music-making as their main career, encompassing a range of genres, ages, career stages, levels of anxiety and depression, and levels of subjective wellbeing.
• Interviewees reported a number of psychosocial challenges emanating from their work as music creators. A predominant theme was that of loneliness, understood herein as a feeling of isolation and a lack of support.
• Female music creators suffered specific challenges related to sexism, misogyny and ageism.
• Features of Danish society and the Danish music industry were highlighted as factors. These were:
o Fragmentation across the music supply chain in Denmark. o Socio-cultural norms of Danish society.
o Challenges they felt they faced within, or when exiting, the music education system.
• Music’s healing abilities and the positive role it plays in people’s lives was also highlighted.
• Interviewees highlighted two areas of reform which they felt might offer tangible improvements to their mental health and wellbeing. These were:
1) Structural reform and improvements in their working conditions. Three forms were noted:
o Changes to methods of government subsidy for music creators.
o Changes to better support the self-employed.
o Changes to music industry working practices to emphasise cultures
of care and understanding.
2) Initiatives to foster community, togetherness and knowledge sharing. Two forms were noted:
o Easier access to music business information to enable career
development.
o Spaces for peer support.
• Interviewees were clear that they valued forms of mental health intervention where it was undertaken by those with shared lived experience of music creators’ working lives.
User
Chat, escreva um resumo (abstract) a partir desta introdução:
Quais as possibilidades para o jornalismo a partir da tecnologia blockchain? De que maneira as pesquisas acadêmicas vêm discutindo esta temática? A blockchain é uma tendência para a atividade jornalística ou ainda uma ideia incipiente em se tratando de ecossistema informativo e midiático? E, se é uma promessa ou tendência, até que ponto a blockchain pode ser útil para o jornalismo e jornalistas? Essas são algumas inquietações que o tema jornalismo e blockchain despertam e que, neste capítulo, pretendemos explorar. Dessa forma, para demonstrar aspectos relevantes e um panorama em torno dessas questões elementares, analisamos 33 artigos publicados em periódicos recuperados das bases Web Of Science (WoS) e Scopus em um recorte temporal que compreende o período entre 2017 e 2021. Com finalidade exploratória, apresentamos resultados em caráter quantitativo e qualitativo numa abordagem metodológica mista que reúne diferentes técnicas de análises e ferramentas.
A blockchain (cadeia de blocos) surgiu em 2008 no mercado financeiro nas transações das criptomoedas bitcoin. É uma tecnologia que agrupa um conjunto de dados criptografados, também chamada de protocolo e está intimamente ligada a noção de confiança. De forma simplificada, a blockchain é um banco de dados compartilhado por várias pessoas. Nessa tecnologia, os dados são armazenados em blocos interligados em uma cadeia formando uma rede ponto a ponto (P2P – peer to peer) em que diferentes dispositivos de computação criam registros confiáveis e imutáveis. Cada dispositivo de computação (nó) que se conecta ao banco de dados universal tem a função de validar e repassar as informações. Ao mesmo tempo, cada nó recebe uma cópia da cadeia de blocos possibilitando as transações sem a necessidade de intermediários.
Nesta tecnologia, prevalece ainda a forte característica de descentralização aliada a uma atitude disruptiva, que é um ponto essencial da blockchain. Os smart contracts (contratos inteligentes) reúnem as cláusulas de transações aceitas por todos os envolvidos automaticamente. Paradoxalmente, a concepção de confiança sempre foi um constante desafio no uso da blockchain. Afinal, como assegurar que os dados envolvidos em uma transação são confiáveis uma vez que não há terceiros garantindo a mediação? Apesar dos obstáculos, a adoção da tecnologia vem crescendo e se expandindo para diferentes setores para além das criptomoedas (ERKKILÄ, 2019).
Já o tema jornalismo e blockchain vem ganhando espaços nas discussões acadêmicas e sociais, mas ainda é considerado um movimento tímido. Entre as principais razões está o fato de a blockchain ser considerada uma tecnologia relativamente nova e, de certa maneira, ainda estar associada a criptomoedas como bitcoin e ether. Contudo, a aplicação dessa tecnologia no setor de mídia e jornalismo já reúne algumas referências como o projeto Civil e outras iniciativas de empresas e startups, como Forbes e Kinzen (ERKKILÄ, 2019; IVANCSICS, 2019; SINTES-OLIVELLA et al., 2020).
Ao refletir sobre o background do uso da blockchain no jornalismo, é importante destacar a complexidade do ecossistema informativo digital que – por essa e outras razões – desencadeou uma crise sistêmica, na qual o ofício jornalístico é posto em xeque. Confiança e desconfiança nas notícias e nas instituições jornalísticas, monetização, plataformização e desinformação (TOFF et al. 2019; KALOGEROPOULOS et al., 2020; SAAD, 2021) são pontos primordiais para a compreensão da necessidade do uso da blockchain no jornalismo. Nesta seara ainda, o fenômeno da dataficação, que inclui a essência do Big Data como a velocidade, o volume e a variedade de dados disponibilizados na rede, trouxe à tona a veracidade e a integridade dos conteúdos publicados no ambiente digital. Portanto, neste contexto e para o coletivo contemporâneo, a verificação, a credibilidade e a transparência assumiram um papel fundamental. É nesse ponto de enfrentamento de crises que a tecnologia blockchain passa ser uma promessa ou tendência para o jornalismo e jornalistas.
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Este capítulo explora as possibilidades e desafios que a tecnologia blockchain apresenta para o jornalismo. Através da análise de 33 artigos acadêmicos publicados entre 2017 e 2021, provenientes das bases Web Of Science (WoS) e Scopus, adotamos uma abordagem metodológica mista para fornecer uma compreensão quantitativa e qualitativa sobre o tema. A blockchain, originada no mercado financeiro em 2008 com as criptomoedas, é uma tecnologia de banco de dados compartilhado, caracterizada pela descentralização e imutabilidade dos registros. Apesar de inicialmente associada às criptomoedas, a blockchain tem sido cada vez mais explorada em diferentes setores, incluindo o jornalismo. Embora ainda em estágio inicial, iniciativas como o projeto Civil, Forbes e Kinzen indicam um interesse crescente na aplicação da blockchain na mídia. Diante da crise de confiança enfrentada pelo jornalismo digital, exacerbada pela disseminação de desinformação e pela complexidade do ecossistema informativo, a blockchain surge como uma potencial solução. A capacidade dessa tecnologia em garantir verificação, credibilidade e transparência se torna fundamental em um ambiente onde a autenticidade e integridade das informações são frequentemente questionadas.
Almost one century after Walter Benjamin’s dissertation on the value of the work of art under the impact of its technological reproduction on the roots of globalization and mass media society, the current research aims to provide some coordinates to approach the influence of AI co-creative processes in the artistic field. From a media archaeological approach, we will map the collaborative practices that emerge in the Generative Art landscape to understand the creative possibilities of interaction between humans and machine-driven artistic goals. By conceiving the Web 3.0 as an expansive megadungeon, we find an increasing number of projects based on participative dynamics where online communities join forces with AI decentralized artists to reshape the current state of the art. We will take as an example the Botto Project, a community-driven creator conceived by Mario Klingemann, a pioneer of AI artworks who employs machine learning methods to revolutionize the blockchain and crypto art market. This case study leads us to reconsider the (wo)man-machine co-creation as the base of the auratic experience of the work of art in the age of AI co-creativity.
Resumo: Recentemente dezoito associações culturais e outros agrupamentos sem fins lucrativos avançaram com uma acção em tribunal contra o Ministério da Cultura, por se sentirem lesados nos seus direitos de acesso a financiamento público. A acção deu entrada em Março de 2023, acompanhada de uma providência cautelar, sendo que as “Estruturas lesadas pelo Ministério da Cultura”, como se autodenominam, esperam reverter o resultado final do concurso de apoios sustentados de 2022. Mas qual a importância dos apoios, e porquê o extremar de posições entre o que deveriam ser parceiros numa mesma arena cultural?
Com base num trabalho de campo que acompanhou desde o início o desenrolar dos acontecimentos, depoimentos e discussões do grupo; apoiado ainda na investigação académica, este artigo irá analisar, sob o ponto de vista da sustentabilidade das artes, a dependência de fontes de financiamento público, que afectam o seu percurso desde a sua génese.
Palavras-chave: indústrias criativas; artes do espectáculo; apoios públicos;
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Abstract: Recently, eighteen cultural associations and other non-profit groups took legal action against the Ministry of Culture because they felt their rights to access public funding had been violated. The action was filed in March 2023, accompanied by a precautionary measure, and those now called “Structures harmed by the MC” hope to reverse the final result of the 2022 sustained support competition. But how important is public support in the creative production? and why the extreme positions between those who should be partners in the same cultural arena?
Based on fieldwork that followed closely the development of the group's events, statements and discussions, combined with the analysis of creative paths; supported by academic research, this article will analyse, from the point of view of the sustainability of the arts, the dependence on public funding, which affects its trajectory from the beginning of the creative process.
Key words: creative industries; performing arts; public support to the arts
Türkçe/Turkish
Sanat sosyolojisi ile çalışma sosyolojisi alt disiplinleri çerçevesinde yapılmış olan bu
çalışma sanat üreticilerinin çalışma biçimleri ve sanat-temelli kariyerlerinde yaşamış
oldukları sorunlara odaklanmaktadır. Sanat üreticileri farklı toplumsal alanlarda üretim
yapmaktadırlar. Bu alanlardan en önemlisi doğal olarak sanat alanıdır ama bilindiği gibi sanat üreticilerinin tümü bu alan içerisinde yer alamamaktadır. Dolayısıyla çoğu sanat üreticisi kültürel ve yaratıcı endüstriler içerisinde üretim yapmak durumunda kalmaktadır.
Bu araştırma kültürel ve yaratıcı endüstriler içerisinde çalışan sanat üreticileri üzerine
yapılmıştır. Araştırma kapsamında eleştirel bir teorik çerçeve benimsenmiştir. Bu bağlamda ilk etapta kültürel ve yaratıcı endüstriler, kültür üretimi olarak sanat üretimi, sanat emeği, yaratıcı sınıf/kültür işçisi kavramları üzerinden ilerlenmiştir. Araştırma verilerin değerlendirilmesi ile birlikte tam-zamanlı çalışma, freelance çalışma, sosyal ağ, sosyal sermaye, kültürel sermaye, dijital devrim, güvencesizlik, girişimcilik, meslek olarak sanat üreticisi olmak, sanat-temelli kariyer, yaratıcılık kavramlarına ulaşılmıştır.
Araştırmada nitel yönteminin temellendirilmiş teori stratejini benimsenmiştir. Bu bağlamda kültürel ve yaratıcı endüstrilerde çalışan yirmi iki sanat üreticisi (grafik tasarımcı, illüstratör, animasyon sanatçısı, dijital oyun tasarımcısı vb.) ile görüşmeler gerçekleştirilmiştir. Araştırma sonucunda, ikinci bölümde de görüleceği gibi, kültürel ve yaratıcı endüstrilerde çalışan sanat üreticilerinin iki tip çalışma biçimi gözlenmiştir.
Bu çalışma biçimlerinden ilki tam-zamanlı çalışmadır diğeri ise freelance (serbest çalışma) çalışmadır. Pek çok sanat üreticisi bu iki çalışma biçimini melez olarak kullanmaktadırlar. Ayrıca sanat üreticileri bu çalışma biçimlerinde pek çok sorun ile karşılaşmaktadırlar. Araştırma kapsamında bu sorunlardan bazıları telif hakları, sigorta olamama, sosyal güvencesizlik, düşük gelir, gerekli zamana sahip olamama, keyfi revize olarak belirlenmiştir. Araştırma kapsamında bir diğer önemli konu ise kültürel ve yaratıcı endüstrilerde çalışan sanat üreticilerinin sanat alanı ile olan ilişkisidir. Bu bağlamda bazı görüşmeciler kendilerini sanat alanının tümüyle dışında konumlandırırken bazı görüşmeciler kültürel ve yaratıcı endüstrilerin yanında sanat alanında da çalışmalar yapmaktadır. Özellikle kültürel ve yaratıcı endüstrilerde sanat üretimini etkileyen en önemli unsur dijital olanakların gelişmesidir. Dijital olanaklar ile beraber sanat üreticileri hatanın az olduğu ve hızın yüksek olduğu üretimler gerçekleştirebilmektedirler.
English/İngilizce
This study, which was made within the framework of art sociology and sociology of work sub-disciplines, focuses on the working styles of art producers and the problems they have experienced in their art-based careers. Art producers produce in different social areas. The most important of these fields is naturally the field of art, but as it is known, not all art producers can take place in this field. Therefore, most art producers have to produce within the cultural and creative industries. This research was conducted on art producers working in the cultural and creative industries.
A critical theoretical framework has been adopted within the scope of the research. In this context, in the first place, the concepts of cultural and creative industries, art production as cultural production, art labor, creative class/cultural worker were proceeded. With the evaluation of the research data, the concepts of full-time work, freelance work, social network, social capital, cultural capital, digital revolution, precarity, entrepreneurship, being an art producer as a job, art-based career, creativity were reached.
The grounded theory strategy of the qualitative method was adopted in the research. In this context, interviews were conducted with twenty-two art producers (graphic designer, illustrator, animation artist, digital game designer, etc.) working in the cultural and creative industries.
As a result of the research, as can be seen in the second part, two types of working styles of art producers working in the cultural and creative industries were observed. The first of these working forms is full-time work and the other is freelance work. Many art producers use these two forms of work as a hybrid. In addition, art producers face many problems in these ways of working. Within the scope of the research, some of these problems were determined as not being able to have copyright, insurance, social security, low income, not having the necessary time, and arbitrary revision.
Another important issue within the scope of the research is the relationship of art producers working in the cultural and creative industries with the field of art. In this context, while some interviewees position themselves completely outside the field of art, some interviewees work in the field of art as well as in the cultural and creative industries. The most important factor affecting art production, especially in the cultural and creative industries, is the development of digital possibilities. With digital opportunities, art producers are able to produce productions with low error and high speed.
The paper is about how the corporate governance affects the financial performance of the banks operating in the Arabian Peninsula.
In this chapter we contrast marginal improvements in public policy with the radical alternative of a heterotopia based on the work of Michel Foucault and Robert Nozick. Artistic communities explore and imagine alternative social worlds which function as experiments in living and challenge the status quo, a process for which we believe there should be as much space as possible. This space can exist at the fringes of society and in largely neglected urban areas. But we argue that their function is not primarily as alternative space, rather as an integrated part of civil society in which they function as genuine and (semi-)permanent alternatives to established forms of living. This will require a sufficient degree of self-organization and self-governance for which it is important that public policy provides adequate legal forms which facilitate the formation of self-governing communities. We explore the challenges that such forms of self-governance within an urban setting face through an analysis of Freetown Christiania in Copenhagen.
We present a Dewey-inspired pragmatic approach to the arts which starts from the values which artists and audiences seek to realize. We argue that these values are realized in online and offline communities in a process of four phases: value orientation, imagination, realization, and evaluation. We contrast this approach to various recent approaches to the arts which have explicitly or implicitly led to the instrumentalization of the arts. Various policies have supported the arts to boost economic development, foster social inclusion, or affirm national identity, rather than for the values which artists and audiences pursue. We develop the notion of cultural civil society to describe the heterogenous practices around the arts and argue that they are a key feature of a liberal democratic society. The challenge which arises from rival and sometimes antagonistic practices around the arts is how they can co-exist peacefully. We illustrate this challenge through an examination of the recent controversy over Confederate and colonial statues. Rather than resolving whether such statues should remain or be removed, we suggest that public space should welcome different practices and allow for contestation from different minority voices in society.
We propose an alternative perspective for the private, social, and public governance of the arts rooted in modus vivendi liberalism as opposed to political liberalism. In this perspective, the co-existence of a great diversity of social practices around the arts is the primary goal of cultural policy. We argue that to achieve this we should aim for a more complete separation between the art and state, analogous to the way that church and state are separated. This implies that the state should aim to create a stable legal framework in which practices can co-exist, minority voices are protected, and the government refrains from favoring certain art forms over others. We contrast the evolving social practices in cultural civil society with the backward looking and frequently static large organizations and monuments which are typically at the heart of cultural policy and argue that a heterogeneous cultural civil society is a better safeguard for pluralism in contemporary democratic society, and a better safeguard at attempts to essentialize (national) identities. Cultural civil society will depend to a large degree on private and social forms of governance and the chapter explores the legal forms which can enable communities to do so. Finally, we propose a few methods to measure the vibrancy of the more informal practices in cultural civil society.
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