Xin Gu

This book critically investigates the declining status of creative workers in contemporary societies following changes associated with the neoliberal creativity discourse – from the distribution of resources around cultural production to consumption, and from the management of ‘labour time’ to ‘life time’. These changes have narrowed career pathways for creative workers, resulting in exploitative working conditions for both professionals and amateurs. The contemporary cultural industries accentuate entrepreneurialism, informed by ‘social network markets’ and a capacity to engage technologised consumer culture. This book suggests that a radically different view is needed to understand how creative workers justify their continued participation in the cultural industries. It pays particular attention to the identities of marginalised cultural workers (underpaid or under-rewarded) and argues that cultural work cannot be understood as a route into entrapment by self-exploitation (sacrificial labour) nor as an abstract form of creative autonomy. Creative workers must engage the ‘artist critique’ to re-claim the social values of making culture as ‘public labour’. Bringing together theory and practice via contemporary case studies, this book is a significant contribution to research on the cultural economy and will be of interest to researchers in this field and practitioners in the management of cultural work.

Recentralising the Artist Critique and Social Networks in the Cultural Industries

Cultural Work and Creative Subjectivity

Justin O'Connor

Michael Kho Lim

This book responds to the lack of Asian representation in creative cities literature. It aims to use the creative cities paradigm as part of a wider process involving first, a rapid de-industrialisation in Asia that has left a void for new development models, resulting in a popular uptake of cultural economies in Asian cities; and second, the congruence and conflicts of traditional and modern cultural values leading to a necessary re-interpretation and re-imagination of cities as places for cultural production and cultural consumption. Focusing on the ‘Asian century’, it seeks to recognise and highlight the rapid rise of these cities and how they have stepped up to the challenge of transforming and regenerating themselves. The book aims to re-define what it means to be an Asian creative city and generate more dialogue and new debate around different urban issues.

Re-Imagining Creative Cities in Twenty-First Century Asia

This book brings together multiple strands of debate around the cultural creative industries and contemporary capitalism, China’s position in global capitalism, the future of modernity and new ways of thinking about culture and cultural policy. Clearly written and engaging, it is the first study to provide a critical lens on creative industries discourse and to bring it together with detailed historical and social analysis. It analyses the ongoing development of China’s cultural industries, examining the institutions, regulations, interests and markets that underpin the Chinese cultural economy and the strategic position of Shanghai within that economy. Explores cultural policy reforms in post-colonial China and articulates Shanghai’s significance in paving China’s path to modernity and entry to global capitalism. In-depth and illuminating, this book situates China’s contemporary cultural economy in its larger global and historical context, revealing the limits of Western thought in understanding Chinese history, culture and society. This book is aimed at a broad, educated audience who seek to engage more with what is happening in China, especially in the cultural field. It tries to take such an audience outside the standard frame of Western modernity, suggesting the possibility of different historical trajectories and possibilities. Because the book is theoretical and empirical in its approach, it will be of strong interest to both those interested in Chinese cultural policy and the creative industries approach generally. Cultural and creative industries is an increasingly important subject area in Higher Education, with undergraduate and postgraduate programs representing some of the fastest growing areas in arts, humanities and social science faculties. This audience is increasingly global, as this policy debate has now moved outside the Western countries whose economic competitiveness it was meant to promote. It is an agenda promoted by agencies such as UNESCO, UNCTAD, the World Bank, British Council and the Goethe Institute. Primary readership will be academics with a particular interest in Chinese culture, cultural studies, media studies, public policy and management studies, cultural policy, East Asian studies and cultural policy researchers. It will also be relevant to all those interested in China and Chinese’s culture; and those interested in the history of Shanghai and the role it plays in contemporary Chinese culture and politics. Given the current interest in China, it may also be of wider appeal too.

Xin Gu

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