David Hesmondhalgh, University of Leeds

“Why Creative Labour Matters”

Paid work in modern societies is often exploitative, damaging and dangerous. But many people seek satisfaction and self-realisation through their employment, as well as a decent wage. One element that many workers cite as desirable is creativity—a term much easier to invoke than to define. Perhaps it is best thought of as simply the opportunity to shape something in a distinctive way.

Some types of paid work are commonly thought to offer greater possibilities for creativity, self-realisation and satisfaction than others. Amongst them are jobs that centrally involve the manipulation of symbols – images, words, designs – to communicate with others. Most notable amongst these are jobs in a set of industries that are often known as the media industries, sometimes the cultural industries, and increasingly, the creative industries.

These are growing areas of modern economies. They may not be growing quite as fast as some commentators suggest, but they are expanding nonetheless. One reason for this is that governments have been competing with each other to develop them, often in the form of 'creative industries' policies. More and more people work in these industries. But what is the nature of this work? Do they really provide less alienation and greater autonomy than other kinds of employment? This paper seeks to investigate these questions, drawing upon research carried out in three major creative or cultural industries: television, magazine journalism and music. 

Mark Banks, Open University

"Going Wild in the Country? The Instrumental Leisure of the Creative Class"

Through a critical analysis of Richard Florida’s popular and influential text The Rise of the Creative Class (2002) I will explore the promotion of leisure and its role in the creation of the economically-productive 'creative' body. The discussion has three dimensions. Firstly, I examine how the (allegedly) ‘free’ and distinctive realm of post-industrial leisure that Florida promotes, may exhibit certain patterns of regulation and constraint that uphold (rather than challenge) the instrumental imperatives of the ‘new’, ‘creative’ capitalism. Secondly, I argue, so close is the resemblance between the structure and purpose of creative leisure and creative work, it appears that the traditional notion of leisure as an autonomous work-antithetical practice may be disappearing – at least amongst creative workers.  Thirdly, I suggest the apparent disappearance of non-instrumental leisure is not only endorsed by Florida, but also, apparently, creative workers themselves, who, contrary to tradition, appear to be enthusiastically embracing (rather than resisting) the administration of leisure by instrumental rationality. The implications of this are considered, followed by a discussion that offers a more formal critique of Florida’s work and considers the analytical efficacy of Florida’s model of 'new' economy leisure.

Gerhard Schulze, University of Bamberg

“In Search of Aura: Cultural Production and Experience in the Age of Unlimited Reproducibility — the Case of Live Music“

In 20th Century, the path of cultural production and experience was chiefly determined by a long series of technical innovations. Cinema, radio, TV, videos, records, cassettes, CDs, and finally the internet were like earthquakes—new technologies resulted in creative destruction and restructuring of what might be called „the cultural industry“: modes of reception, frames of experience, patterns of production, ways of distribution, professions, and the products themselves. But despite these subsequent phases of chaos and new order, we recognize a constant direction from one step to another: A development towards increasing degrees of availability, may it be compositions, pictures, movies or texts for everybody at any time and any place. In his famous essay on „the work of art in the age of its technical reproducibility“ (1938) Walter Benjamin reflected on this development at an early stage. Compared with today he witnessed only the beginning of the age of reproducibility. These days, however, after an intense period of technological innovations we have come to a final stage. People detect what Benjamin called "Aura", referring to singular, unrepeatable, irreproducible and authentic aspects of works of art. Surprisingly—and contrary to Benjaminʼs conjecture—the concept of aura in the present day turns out not to be lost but to be found again. Live music is an example for what seems to be the general line of the development of culture and experience in the 21st century: the search for aura, partly provoked by technical reproducibility, partly—and quite the contrary—supported by it.

Kevin Hetherington, Open University

“The Museum without History: Cities, Regeneration, and the Problem of Heritage.”

This paper will look at the question of how history gets presented within contemporary museums at a time when issues of inclusion, access, diversity and a recognition of the traumatic past are to the fore in shaping the politics of display.  Locating those issues of display within the broader context of the role museums play within urban regeneration and city development more broadly, the paper will propose a need to consider in detail the relationship between the (material) trace and the (historic) event (Lyotard) that constitute our experience of the space of the past as history. It will go on to address how an approach centered on such an analysis might provide a challenge to the hegemonic discourse of heritage that has emerged out of recent consumption driven agendas that define the cultural significance of the space of the contemporary museum.