Taking the Symbolic Seriously in Creative Labour Research

• In Event: ‘Deconstructing ‘Diversity’: How Media Industries Reflect Social Inequality and What We Can Do About It?

Abstract

In the past five years we have seen a mushrooming in creative labour research. This research covers a range of topics, from diversity in the creative workforce to issues of precarity and self-exploitation. But there is a surprising lack of interest in what makes creative labour truly distinct: the symbolic quality of the commodity being made. Too often, creative labour research ignores the text, assuming that diversifying the workforce, or improving the quality of work, will automatically lead to more diverse output. In this theoretical paper, I will argue for why we need to place the issue of the symbolic at the core of creative labour research. In doing so I outline a new interdisciplinary approach that combines critical political economy, the sociology of creative labour and cultural studies of the politics of representation in order to better unpack how material structures shape the symbolic, and vice versa.

Author

• Anamik Saha, Goldsmith, U of London