God bless the cultural intermediaries, I say.

Conclusion | 22 | Supporting Creative and Cultural Work in Europe | Da This concluding chapter summarizes the arguments, evidence, and analysis presented in the previous chapters. It focusses on how questions of definition and

We conclude with reflections on what the evidence tells us. Notably, it indicates that challenging conditions of creative work are not inevitable. If states consider the creative economy important, then there are routes to supporting this work and these workers. www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edi...

Milton Keynes statue honours Open University founder The statue celebrates the life of an MP who was behind the creation of the university.

This makes me happy and incredibly sad for what we let go … for how impossible it would be to set up anything with the intellectual, pedagogic, democratic vision of the OU now www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Creative and Cultural Work in Europe | Bård Kleppe, Jaka Primorac, Mii This book gathers evidence and case studies from various parts of Europe and across the different sectors that comprise the creative industries, including the

Out today, from editors Bård Kleppe, Jaka Primorac, Mikka Pyykkönen and me. The book combines cross-national writing teams and focussed case studies across Europe to examine the rhetoric and reality of creative work. A contents thread 👇 www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/1...

Can we be entirely sure he hasn't been replaced by a bot?

I think we need to do an edgy, single-take Netflix drama, set in a school in the north of England, about the online radicalisation of Nick Robinson

Creative and Cultural Work in Europe | Bård Kleppe, Jaka Primorac, Mii This book gathers evidence and case studies from various parts of Europe and across the different sectors that comprise the creative industries, including the

Thanks to our contributors, reviewers and to @bookseditorial.bsky.social and team at @routledgebooks.bsky.social for their help. If you work at a university, why not order a copy for your library? And if you don't, and you want to read anything, drop me a line. www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/1...

Moisturise.

Creative and Cultural Work in Europe | Bård Kleppe, Jaka Primorac, Mii This book gathers evidence and case studies from various parts of Europe and across the different sectors that comprise the creative industries, including the

Thanks to our contributors, reviewers and to @bookseditorial.bsky.social and team at @routledgebooks.bsky.social for their help. If you work at a university, why not order a copy for your library? And if you don't, and you want to read anything, drop me a line. www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/1...

Conclusion | 22 | Supporting Creative and Cultural Work in Europe | Da This concluding chapter summarizes the arguments, evidence, and analysis presented in the previous chapters. It focusses on how questions of definition and

We conclude with reflections on what the evidence tells us. Notably, it indicates that challenging conditions of creative work are not inevitable. If states consider the creative economy important, then there are routes to supporting this work and these workers. www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edi...

Navigating Symbolic Boundaries | 21 | Migrants' Artistic Practices and Migrants and their descendants are increasingly shaping the cultural landscape of many European cities across multiple fields such as music, theatre,

Finally, @michaelparzer.bsky.social examines the challenges faced by artists who have experienced migration. Using data collected in Austria, the chapter focusses on the role of recognition in 're-starting' an artistic career in a new country.
www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edi...

Ecologically Sustainable Creative Work? | 20 | Rethinking Cultural Pol This chapter explores the role of creative work in the green transition, focussing on how cultural policies shape its relationship with ecological

Next, Višnja Kisić, Miikka Pyykkönen & Goran Tomka challenge the view of creative work as immaterial and emphasise its environmental impacts. To address this, they advocate an ‘ecological turn', supporting collective, locally rooted creative practices. www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edi...

Universal Basic Income and the Future of (Creative) Work | 19 | Creati This chapter uses the emergence of policy proposals for Universal Basic Income (UBI) for artists to contribute to debates about the value of creative work. The

Then, Heidi Ashton, Chris Bilton and I use the emergence - and implementation of - policy demands for Basic Income for artists to reflect on how the state might see creative work - and work in general - in the contemporary economy. www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edi...

Creative Labour as Platform Work | 18 | Structural Inequalities and Di The chapter examines the evolving nature of work in the cultural and creative sectors within the global platform economy, highlighting in what ways online

In 'Creative Labour as Platform Work', Heidi Ashton & Jaka Primorac examine how the demands of platform-mediated cultural production often contribute to precariousness, intensify existing inequalities, and add to unpaid labour demands for visibility. www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edi...

How to Move Things with Unions? | 17 | Labour Organizing of Art Worker The chapter examines labour organizing among art workers in the post-Yugoslav context, focussing on Slovenia and Croatia, where freelance art workers, facing

Katja Praznik's chapter on labour organizing among freelance artists in Slovenia and Croatia underscores the need for worker agency and collective action, rather than advocacy alone, in changing the conditions of creative work.
www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edi...

The Creative Middle Class | 15 | Between Neoliberalism and Commonism | Over the last decade, the concept of the creative class has gained substantial recognition, celebrated by academics, policymakers, and industry leaders.

Next, @trust1970.bsky.social identifies 'the commons' and 'commonism' as routes to address the precarization of 'The Creative Middle Class'.
www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edi...

The Trajectory of Film Work as Precarious Project Work | 14 | From Org This chapter explores the precarious nature of film labour, using Croatia as a case study to examine how the project-to-project approach has become deeply

Jaka Primorac examines film and labour legislation from the socialist era in Yugoslavia and into present-day Croatia. She argues that the globalised film industry needs a safety net for workers vulnerable to the unstable, project-based nature of their work. www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edi...

From Precarity to Security? | 13 | How Can Cultural Policies Tackle th As is well known, self-employed workers in the creative industries, such as freelancers and sole entrepreneurs, face many challenges in their work and working

Next up, Miikka Pyykkönen focuses on policy initiatives that attempt to address the specific challenge of free-lance creative work, in Finland and elsewhere around Europe.
www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edi...

Building Creative Careers through Working Relations | 12 | The Case of Pursuing a career as an artist is inherently challenging; however, the competition is particularly intense and unpredictable within the visual arts sector.

In 'Building Creative Careers through Working Relations' Mari Torvik Heian and @aasnevje.bsky.social analyse the Norwegian Artists Assistant Scheme as a practical route to ease the route from training to professional practice.
www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edi...

Welfare Policy as Cultural Policy in the UK | 11 | From Enterprise All This chapter considers how welfare policies constitute an alternative form of cultural policy, allowing cultural workers to develop creative skills and

Next, Heidi Ashton, Chris Bilton and I consider UK welfare policy as cultural policy. We contrast the welfare schemes of the 80s and 90s, which artists were able to use to subsidise their work, with the far tighter conditions of Universal Credit.

www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edi...

Barcelona Creation Factories | 10 | Improving the Support for Creative Within the framework of the creative city, cultural policy has been aimed at increasing the capacity of cultural sectors to generate cultural value in the form

Then, Joaquim Ruis-Ulldemolins analyses support for the creative industries in Barcelona. The chapter highlights the challenges for regional authorities in taking on the role of job creator in such sectors in ways that are accountable to their publics. www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edi...

“Oh My God, What Have I Done All Day?” | 8 | Challenges of Measuring t This chapter considers the experiences of freelance creative workers in the UK and Finland following the Covid-19 pandemic, highlighting some challenges in

In 'Oh my God, what have I done all day?' Chris Bilton and Miikka Pyykkönen use interviews with artists in Finland and the UK to identify the limitations of terms like 'input', 'output' and 'productivity in understanding creative work. www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edi...

Patterns in Artists' Careers | 7 | Adapting to Uncertainty, Opportunit This research offers a case study-based analysis with theoretical conclusions on the dynamics of artistic career development, focusing on the period between

Next up, Ieva Zemīte and Kristaps Ancāns use case studies of artists from Latvia, Romania and the UK to evaluate the role of social networks and cultural capital in early career development and preparing artists for a precarious labour market. www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edi...

Closing the Gap? | 6 | Gender Differences in Norwegian Artists' Work a This chapter examines gender differences in work and income among Norwegian artists, drawing on four extensive quantitative studies conducted between 2006 and

In 'Closing the Gap', Bård Kleppe and Mari Torvik Heian draw on Norwegian data spanning nearly two decades to examine how cultural policies impact gender differences in income in artistic professions. Disparities persist, but this is a solvable problem. www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edi...

On the Heterogeneity of Creative Work | 5 | Exploring Effects of the C This chapter discusses varying ways in which cultural workers have experienced and been influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is based on the data collected

Then, Goran Tomka and Višnja Kisić analyse the experience of creative workers in the Balkans during Covid-19. The challenges faced, and the variety of coping strategies they deployed indicate a need to re-think how such workers are trained and supported. www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edi...

Creativity and the ‘Work' of Art | 4 | Visual Artists' Perspectives | The policy drive to conceive of the creative economy as a site of job creation has meant that distinctive elements of different forms of creative work have been

Next, Simone Wesner and I use Arendt's concepts of 'work' and 'labour' to understand the motivations of visual artists in Germany. A key theme of the book is whether creative work is 'different' from other types of work - and the policy implications if it is. www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edi...

Measuring Matters | 3 | Mapping Cultural and Creative Work in Europe | The chapter analyzes how cultural and creative work is mapped in Europe. Firstly, it critically assesses currently available data on the European Union level,

In 'Measuring Matters', Bård Kleppe, Jaka Primorac, and Heidi Ashton evaluate creative economy jobs data from Norway, Croatia and the UK. The chapter examines the 'what' and 'why' of measurement in different territories with different policy priorities.

www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edi...

Creative and Cultural Work in Europe | Bård Kleppe, Jaka Primorac, Mii This book gathers evidence and case studies from various parts of Europe and across the different sectors that comprise the creative industries, including the

Out today, from editors Bård Kleppe, Jaka Primorac, Mikka Pyykkönen and me. The book combines cross-national writing teams and focussed case studies across Europe to examine the rhetoric and reality of creative work. A contents thread 👇 www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/1...

Fully-funded AHRC Collaborative Doctoral PhD Studentship at UCL and the V&A: 'Invisible Hands: Migrant Labour and British Craft in the 18th Century'

Ignore the 'top ten' hype; focus on the ace resources, environment and support. Deadline 15 April. #Skystorians