Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Virtual Workers and the Global Labour Market pp 161–178Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Towards More Insecurity? Virtual Work and the Sustainability of Creative Labour

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Dynamics of Virtual Work ((DVW))

Abstract

Primorac reviews the relationship between virtual work and creative labour in the cultural and creative industries. She outlines how the everyday work of creative cultural workers is entwined in a complex network of online and offline working practices. These practices further blur the boundary between work time and leisure time, to the implosion of the public sphere into the private sphere in the lives of creative workers and towards the (self)-exploitation practices. In this context of rising insecurities and inequalities in cultural and creative industries on a global level, Primorac considers whether virtual work can contribute to the development of new forms of networking and unionisation among creative workers towards more sustainable labour practices.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD   119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    As Hesmondhalgh and Baker (2011: 179) write, although they find evidence to support the autonomists and critical sociologists claims about precariousness and insecurity, they are wary of some of the concepts elaborated by them. ‘In particular, […] the generality of their concepts fails to capture the specifically symbolic nature of cultural products, or the fact that the core institutions of symbolic production in modern societies are the media, with their own distinctive power dynamics.’

  2. 2.

    For example, companies including Google Inc. and General Mills Inc. are including mindfulness in their company schedules. This growing fad for development of mindfulness and conciousness in Silicon Valley is also evident through conferences such as ‘Wisdom 2.0’ (see at: http://www.wisdom2summit.com/).

References

  • Apitzsch, B. (2013). How personal relations work: Individual market adaptation and collective action in flexible labour markets. Industrielle Beziehungen/The German Journal of Industrial Relations, 20(29), 116–141.

    Google Scholar 

  • Banks, M. (2007). The politics of cultural work. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Banks, M., & Hesmondhalgh, D. (2009). Looking for work in creative industries policy. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 15(4), 415–430.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Banks, M., Gill, R., & Taylor, S. (Eds.) (2013). Theorizing cultural work. Labour, continuity and change in the cultural and creative industries. London and New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barada, V. (2012). Žensko iskustvo rada u kreativnim industrijama—Primjer dizajnerica vizualnih komunikacija u Hrvatskoj. Doktorska disertacija [Women’s Experience of Labor in Creative Industries—Example of Female Visual Communication Designers in Croatia. [Ph.D. Thesis], University of Zagreb, Croatia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barada, V., & Primorac, J. (2014). Non-paid, under-paid and self-exploiting labour as a choice and a necessity: Example of women in creative industries. In M. Adamovič et al. (Eds.), Young women in post-Yugoslav societies: Research, practice and policy (pp. 143–164) Zagreb/Sarajevo: Institute for Social Research in Zagreb/Human Rights. Centre: University of Sarajevo.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barbier, J. C. (2011). Employment precariousness. In A European cross-national perspective. A sociological review of thirty years of research. CES working papers, Documents de Travial du Centre d’Economie de la Sorbonne. Retrieved February 23, 2014 from halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00654370/document.

  • Bauman, Z. (2006). Liquid life. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blair, H. (2001). ‘You’re only as good as your last job’: The labour process and labour market in the British film industry. Work, Employment & Society, 15, 149–169. doi:10.1017/S0950017001000071.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blair, H., Grey, S., & Randle, K. (2001). Working in film employment in a project based industry. Personnel Review, 30(2), 170–185.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beck, U. (2000). The brave new world of work. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burston, J., Dyer-Witheford, N., & Hearn, A. (Eds.) (2010). Digital labour. Workers, authors, citizens. Ephemera. Theory & Politics in Organization 10(3–4).

    Google Scholar 

  • Cadwalladr, C. (2014). Wisdom2.0: It came for our heartbeats, now Google wants our souls. The Guardian, 19 September.

    Google Scholar 

  • Christopherson, S. (2008). Beyond the self-expressive creative worker. An industry perspective on entertainment media. Theory, Culture & Society, 25(7–8): 73–95. doi:10.1177/0263276408097797.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conor, B., Gill, R., & Taylor, S. (2015). Gender and creative labour. The Sociological Review, 63(S1), 1–22. doi:10.1111/1467-954X.12237.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cvjetičanin, B., & Katunarić, V. (1999). Cultural policy in Croatia. National report. Strasbourg and Zagreb: Council for Cultural Cooperation, Council of Europe; Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia and Institute for International Relations.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deuze, M. (2007). Convergence culture in the creative industries. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 10(2), 243–263.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Peuter, G., & Cohen, N. S. (2015). Emerging labour politics in creative industries. In K. Oakley & J. O’Connor (Eds.), The Routledge companion to the cultural industries (pp. 305–318). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Domazet, M., & Marinović Jerolimov, D. (Eds.) (2014). Sustainability perspectives from the European semi-periphery. Zagreb: Institute for Social Research and Heinrich Bőll Stiftung Croatia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eichmann, H., Schiffbänker, H., & Reidl, S. (2006). Sustainable work in Vienna’s creative industries—Between independence and concerns for the future? Retrieved February 23, 2006 from www.fokus.or.at/fileadmin/fokus/user/downloads/acei_paper/Reidl%20&%20Schiffbaenker.doc.

  • Eikhof, D., & Warhurst, C. (2013). The promised land? Why social inequalities are systemic in the creative industries. Employee Relations, 35(5), 495–508.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flew, T. (2005). Creative economy. In J. Hartley (Ed.), Creative industries (pp. 344–360). Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Florida, R. (2002). The rise of the creative class. New York: Businnes Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Florida, R. (2007). The flight of the creative class. New York: HarperCollins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fritz, M., & Koch, M. (2013). Introduction: Changing employment standards in crises ridden Europe. In M. Fritz & M. Koch (Eds.), Non-standard employment in Europe: Paradigms, prevalence and policy responses (pp. 1–9). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Gill, R., & Pratt, A. (2008). In the social factory? Immaterial labour, precariousness and cultural work. Theory, Culture and Society, 25(7–8), 1–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hesmondhalgh, D. (2002). The cultural industries. London Thousand Oaks and New Delhi: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hesmondhalgh, D., & Baker, S. (2011). Creative labor. Media work in three cultural industries. London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holts, K. (2013). Towards a taxonomy of virtual work. Work Organization, Labour & Globalization, 7(1), 31–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hui, D. (2003) Baseline study on Hong Kong’s creative industries. The Central Policy Unit, Hong Kong. Retrieved July 24, 2012 from cpu.gov.hk/english/documents/new/press/baseline%20study%28eng%29.pdf.

  • Huws, U. (2001). The making of a cybertariat? Virtual work in a real world. Socialist Register 37. Retrieved December 21, 2014 from socialistregister.com/index.php/srv/article/viewFile/5753/2649.

  • Huws, U. (2013). Working online, living offline: Labour in the Internet age. Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation, 7(1), 1–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huws, U. (2014). Labor in the global digital economy. New York: Monthly Review Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jovičić, S., & Mikić, H. (2006). Creative industries in Serbia—Basic facts and recommendations. Report. Belgrade: British Council.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, D. (2013). Creative labour in the cultural industries. Sociopedia.isa.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lehdonvirta, V., & Mezier, P. (2013). Identity and self-organization in unstructured work. COST action IS1202 working paper series. Retrieved October 13, 2014 from http://vili.lehdonvirta.com/files/COST-Action-IS1202-Working-Paper-12.pdf.

  • Leung, W. F., Gill, R., & Randle, K. (2015). Getting in, getting on, getting out? Women as career scramblers in the UK film and television industries. The Sociological Review, 63(S1), 50–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lovink, G., & Rossiter, N. (Eds.) (2007). My creativity reader. A critique of creative industries. Amsterdam: Institute for Network Cultures.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luckman, S. (2013). Precarious labour then and now: The British arts and crafts movement and cultural work revisited. In M. Banks et al. (Eds.), Theorizing cultural work. Labour, continuity and change in the cultural and creative industries (pp. 19–29). London and New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKinley, A., & Smith, C. (2009). Creative labour. Working in the creative industries. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • McRobbie, A. (2002). From Holloway to Hollywood: Happiness at work in the new cultural economy? In P. du Gay. & M. Pryke (Eds.), Cultural economy. Cultural analysis and commercial life (pp. 97–114). London: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maxwell, R., & Miller, T. (2013). Learning from Luddites. Media labour, technology and life below the line. In M. Banks et al. (Eds.), Theorizing cultural work. Labour, continuity and change in the cultural and creative industries (pp. 113–121). London and New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ministerio de Cultura de Colombia i Convenio Andrés Bello (2003). Impacto económico de las industrias culturales en Colombia. Bogota: Ministerio de Cultura de Colombia i Convenio Andrés Bello Retrieved October 13, 2014 from odai.org/images/documentos/impacto%20econ%F3mico%20de%20las%20industrias%20culturales%20-%20colombia.pdf.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morgan, G. J., & Wood, P. N. (2013). Beyond the vocational fragments: Creative work, precarious labour and the idea of ‘flexploitation’. The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 24(3), 397–415. doi:10.1177/1035304613500601.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mosco, V. (2008). Current trends in the political economy of communication. Global Media Journal—Canadian Edition, 1(1), 45–63.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mosco, V. (2013). Staying ahead of the curve. An interview with Vincent Mosco. In Sociologija medija/Sociology of media blog. Retrieved October 13, 2014 from www.socmediji.wordpress.com/2014/09/10/staying-ahead-of-the-curve-an-interview-with-vincent-mosco/.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mosco, V., & McKercher, C. (2008). The laboring of communication: Will knowledge workers of the world unite? Lanham: Lexington Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neilson, B., & Rossiter, N. (2008). Precarity as a political concept, or, fordism as exception. Theory Culture and Society, 25(7–8), 51–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pratt, A. C. (2004). The cultural economy. A call for specialised ‘production of culture’ perspectives. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 7(1), 117–128.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pratt, A. C. (2008). Locating the cultural economy. In H. Anheier & Y. R. Isar (Eds.), The cultural economy, the cultures and globalization series 2. LA, London, New Delhi, Singapore: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Primorac, J. (2008). The position of cultural workers in creative industries. The South-East-European perspective. Amsterdam: European Cultural Foundation Retrieved February 6, 2008 from www.eurocult.org/uploads/docs/902.pdf.

    Google Scholar 

  • Randle, K. (2015). Class and exclusion at work: The case of UK film and television. In K. Oakley & J. O’Connor (Eds.), The Routledge companion to the cultural industries (pp. 330–343). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Randle, K., & Culkin, N. (2009). Getting in and getting on in Hollywood: Freelance careers in an uncertain industry. In A. McKinley & C. Smith (Eds.), Creative labour. Working in the creative industries. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Randle, K., Forson, C., & Calveley, M. (2015). Towards a Bourdieusian analysis of the social composition of the UK film and television workforce. Work Employment & Society, 29(4), 590–606.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ratzenböck, V., Demel, K., Harauer, R., Landsteiner, G., Falk, R., Hannes, L., et al. (2004). Summary: An analysis of the economic potential of the creative industries in Vienna. Wien: Kulturdokumentation, Mediacult and Wifo Retrieved February 12, 2012 from www.creativeindustries.at/pdf/english-summary.pdf.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ross, A. (2004). No-collar: The humane workplace and its hidden costs. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ross, A. (2007). Nice work if you can get it. The mercurial career of creative industries policy. In G. Lovink & N. Rossiter (Eds.), My creativity reader. A critique of creative industries (pp. 17–39). Amsterdam: Institute for Network Cultures.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ross, A. (2008). The new geography of work: Power to the precarious? Theory, Culture and Society, 25(7–8), 31–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ross, A. (2013). In the search of the lost paycheck. In T. Scholz (Ed.), Digital labour: Internet as playground and factory. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scholz, T. (Ed.) (2013). Digital labour: Internet as playground and factory. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, D. E. (1987). The everyday world as problematic: A feminist sociology. Boston: Northeastern University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seibert, S., & Wilson, F. (2013). All work and no pay: Consequences of unpaid work in the creative industries. Work Employment & Society. doi:10.1177/0950017012474708 EPub ahead of print May 20, 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  • Standing, G. (2011). The precariat. The new dangerous class. London: Bloomsbury.

    Google Scholar 

  • Storey, J., Salaman, G., & Platman, K. (2005). Living with enterprise in an enterprise economy: Freelance and contract workers in the media. Human Relations, 58(8), 1033–1054. doi:10.1177/0018726705058502.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Straw, W., & Warner, N. (2014). March of the modern makers. An industrial strategy for the creative industries. IPPR report. Retrieved February 14, 2015 from www.ippr.org/files/images/media/files/publication/2014/03/March-of-the-modern-makers_Feb2014_11926.pdf?noredirect=1.

  • Taylor, A., & McNeil, J. (2014). The dads of tech. The Baffler, No. 26. Retrieved December 21, 2014 from www.thebaffler.com/salvos/dads-tech.

  • Terranova, T. (2000). Free labor: Producing culture for the digital economy. Social Text, 63(18/2), 33–57 Retrieved February 14, 2012 from openitnow.blogspot.com/2000/07/free-labor-producing-culture-for.html.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Virno, P. (2002). Gramatika mnoštva [Grammar of Multitude]. Zagreb: Naklada Jesenski i Turk.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wen, S. (2014). The ladies vanish. The New Inquiry, 11 November. Retrieved December 21, 2014 from thenewinquiry.com/essays/the-ladies-vanish/.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Development and International Relations (IRMO), Croatia, UK

    Jaka Primorac

Authors
  1. Jaka Primorac
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. London School of Economics, London, United Kingdom

    Juliet Webster

  2. Hertfordshire Business School, University of Hertfordshire, AL10 9AB, United Kingdom

    Keith Randle

Copyright information

© 2016 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Primorac, J. (2016). Towards More Insecurity? Virtual Work and the Sustainability of Creative Labour. In: Webster, J., Randle, K. (eds) Virtual Workers and the Global Labour Market. Dynamics of Virtual Work. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-47919-8_8

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-47919-8_8

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-47918-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-47919-8

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation