Carrotwork and other work: the creative industries and the culture of free labour

Sigthorsson, Gauti (2011) Carrotwork and other work: the creative industries and the culture of free labour. In: Moral Economies of Creative Labour, 7-8 Jul 2011, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

At student demonstrations in the UK this winter you might have seen a group of young people carrying a large papier-mâchée carrot, symbolizing their refusal to work merely for a chance at a glamorous, exciting job sometime later. They are the Carrotworker's Collective, and their anger seems eminently reasonable when young hopefuls struggle to be able to work as interns in advertising, media production, the arts or any other attractive industry. Nevertheless, their critique of the culture of free labour and "wage reversal" (or paying to get in) only targets the first of a series of career hurdles that face entrants into the creative and media industries. Using recent Skillset census data, I look at how the Carrotworkers' critique of the barriers to entry can be extended to the longer-term career hurdles that media workers face, raising questions of sustainability, gender equality and social mobility in the creative industries.

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