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Week12Apr3LectureSlides.pptxCreative Industries and Precarious Employment
Week 12, April 3rd
Lecture Outline
Creative Industries: Products, Labour, History and Features
Precarious Employment: Automation of Labour, Features
The Precariat: Knowledge Workers, Knowledge Entrepreneurs, The Underemployed, Vagabond Workers, The Working Poor
Contingent Labour, Internships, Complicity of the University, Inequality of Opportunity
Disney College Internship Program
Creative Industries
Creative industries: range of formal economic activities which are concerned with the generation or exploitation of knowledge, new ideas, and information
Produces things such as advertising, architecture, art, crafts, design, fashion, film, music, performing arts, publishing, R&D, software, toys and games, TV and radio, and video games
Similar to cultural industries, which generate and exploit pieces of culture (could be culturally-themed versions of products listed above – e.g. “Canadian Heritage Minute” ads, Indigenous fashion week, distinctly Canadian movies, etc. - or other products like galleries, museums, libraries, cultural events, festivals, national sports, landmarks, or tourism)
History of Creative Industries
Due to the crises of Fordism, the next generation fought for more meaningful work in an artistic critique of capitalism. Youth and university students were revolting against a life of dull and dangerous work in the factory, while women were revolting against a life of working in the household
May 1968 general strike against work in France
Since the late 1990s, everyone from municipal governments to the United Nations have been pushing the potential of the “creative industries.” These are seen as an important new source of jobs and economic development. Creative industry-led growth is also seen as a blueprint for urban redevelopment
The counter-cultural ideals and protest movements from the late 1960s that aspired for more creative work, ended up being co-opted so that they did get more creative work and autonomy, but also more exploitative and precarious work – with the expectation that you have to suffer to do what you love
The next generation’s demands were realised in ways that favoured corporations and reduced corporate responsibility for their workforce. Neoliberalism built on and distorted the desire for more autonomy and self-determination at work and in life
Features of Creative Industries
Labour force primarily comprised of young, educated, motivated workers, who are exploited for the products of their creative, cognitive, and cultural labour
Hourglass supply chain: Plenty of content producers, infinite consumers, but a very limited number of distributors who control the whole chain
Need for continuous product novelty
“Coolness” as a valuable currency
Blurred distinction between work and non-work time
Temporary, contract, freelance work
“Company of one”
Features of Creative Industries
Post-secondary education is often necessary just to get in the door
Intense competition between freelancers to establish their brand
Productivity increases, level of innovation increases, but average salary levels decline
Responsibility is on the worker to be flexible, expand their skillset, and constantly make themselves more valuable on the globalized job market
“Gig economy”
Workers bear constant risk, lots of demand uncertainty for the types of labour/products they provide on the market
Common to live from paycheque to paycheque
Precarious Employment
Insecure employment situations that many people – and especially young people – seem to endlessly find themselves in
Until now, people who are educated have been able to find jobs. In the future, many people will not find jobs even though they are educated. Most jobs will be those either at the bottom or the top of the wage scale, with the middle-class disappearing
With neoliberal free-market ideology permeating all aspects of the social system, risk and insecurity became part of employees’ everyday lives. Millions of workers around the world no longer have stable employment prospects
“Precariat”: modern version of the Proletariat (working class that would eventually overthrow capitalist class) identified by Marx, except the Precariat have the same solid footing or ability to unite in solidarity
Features of Precarious Employment
The work situation is characterized by a very high level of uncertainty
Jobs are temporary and insecure, no “promise of tomorrow”
Workers are under pressure with regard to rates of pay and employment rights
Workers feel alienated, little prospect of upwards social mobility
Work doesn’t contribute to their identity, they define themselves by their career aspirations beyond their immediate working situation
Not “middle class,” as they don’t have a stable or predictable salary or the status and benefits that middle-class workers were supposed to possess
Features of Precarious Employment
Several types of control and controller, not just the standard supervisor or manager standing over the worker
Unstable and unreliable income sources, and a pattern of income that is different from the “standard employment relationship”
Lack of community support in times of need
Lack of health and welfare benefits
Don’t feel part of a unified socioeconomic class – despite constituting the largest one
Four categories: Knowledge entrepreneurs, underemployed, vagabond workers, working poor
Innovation and Knowledge Workers
One of the results of globalization is that companies have realized that creativity, expertise and innovation are the new factors determining competitiveness. Profit relies heavily on businesses being able to bring creativity and innovation to the market
Knowledge workers as those who use their intellectual abilities to perform their work
They’re part of the salaried elite, least amount of precarity amongst these categories of work due to having stable and well-paid permanent employment with a reputable company
Extensive post-graduate education is usually a prerequisite. Education has become a commodity where the quality, brand and reputation of the university where one earns their degree is given greater emphasis
Extremely committed to their projects, well-connected in social networks
“Pyjama workers”
Technology’s “Precariatization” of Knowledge Work
Innovation and knowledge workers are experts in their field of study. What should we do with their expertise if a robot, with its artificial intelligence coupled with all available knowledge in the global space, can do the same but with higher performance and safety, and lower costs?
Robots don’t demand pay rises, they get cheaper and cheaper because they are mass produced. Robots don’t go on strike, so they are easy to manage. Robots don’t criticize, so they are easy to lead. Robots don’t have cultural hang-ups, so they don’t generate social and emotional tensions
This will apply to traditional knowledge professions like doctors, nurses, teachers, accountants, architects, priests, consultants, lawyers, and others. The form and content of their work will be completely different from in the pre-robotized society
Knowledge Entrepreneurs
Different from knowledge workers who have permanent well-paid jobs, whereas knowledge entrepreneurs are often hired on short-term contracts
Includes consultants, IT experts, software engineers, or other knowledge-producers working temporarily for private or public firms. Although knowledge entrepreneurs have a sense of independence and freedom in their daily lives, their incomes are uncertain
These are people with a higher education, but who can’t get or don’t want permanent employment. They belong to the “self-employed society.” They are freelancers who are independent and work whenever they want or need to. As a rule they don’t belong to a trade union. There are many websites that cater to the employment needs of these freelancers
The Underemployed/Underpaid
These are people with a good education and relatively long working life despite often being young. They have to hop between temporary underpaying jobs trying to build up enough “experience” related to their education to land a coveted full-time position in their field
The underemployed are hired on short-term contracts depending on a company’s needs. They’re exposed to competition in the global economy and threatened by robotization, so their wages are pushed downwards
“Status discord”: Having to accept jobs and income levels beneath their qualifications can lead to feeling being misled and excluded from the dream working/social life they’ve been told to expect upon graduating, which can instill frustration and alienation
Vagabond Workers
Includes migrants who are skilled and educated, but for various reasons are held back from attaining a permanent career in line with their experience and qualifications
Generally, they are satisfied with their low-paid jobs due to the lowered expectations that are socially constructed around them to settle for less than what their potential allows
Migrants are often happy to be given the opportunity to get a foothold in their new country, despite often being dramatically over-qualified for their new jobs (e.g. doctor in home country working as cab driver in new country)
Very little opportunity for upward social mobility. Many make significant sacrifices in their working lives to ensure that their children can have the career opportunities that they weren’t given
The Working Poor
Includes unskilled workers with poor education, many of whom have lost their middle-class jobs to automated technology or outsourcing, and are left having to perform informal, casual, and part-time jobs for several employers
The working poor are “invisible” in the sense that they are rarely included in official employment statistics. They balance on the edge of poverty, but manage to keep their heads above water, often because they juggle multiple low-paying jobs
In terms of economic survival, they are forced to work any job, no matter how dirty, embarrassing or dangerous, in fear of losing that crucial source of income
Also includes immigrants who don’t have citizenship in the country where they work, only a residential permit. This excludes them from many of the democratic processes, and their rights are often severely limited
They are also faced with the constant threat of being forced to leave the country in which they live and work. Consequently, they often try to become ‘invisible’ by ducking under the radar and never causing any problems for their employers
The Precariat
Former middle-class securities that the precariat lacks:
Labour market security (Adequate income-earning opportunities; government commitment to “full employment”)
Employment security (Protection against arbitrary dismissal, regulations on hiring and firing)
Job security (Ability and opportunity to retain a niche in employment, plus barriers to skill dilution, and opportunities for ‘upward’ mobility in terms of status and income)
Work security (Protection against accidents and illness at work, adequate health and safety regulations, limits on working time, compensation for mishaps)
Skill reproduction security (Opportunity to gain skills as the industry changes, through apprenticeships, employment training and so on)
Income security (Assurance of an adequate stable income, comprehensive social security)
Representation security (Possessing a collective voice in the labour market, through, for example, independent trade unions, with a right to strike)
The Precariat
The rebellion lies in the self-awareness of the precariat as a class, but it’s members currently have a fragmented perspective instead of a common recognition of their shared situation
Members of the precariat see themselves as isolated individuals who sit on the side-lines of society peering into a world populated by successful people: the salaried elite
Members of the precariat do not see themselves as a social class. They have no collective aims, but simply struggle to make ends meet. It is only when they gain class consciousness as a separate social class that they will come to change the social system
Keys for Survival in the Precarious Labour Market
Intellectual capital (level of education, reputation of university attended)
Social capital (the social network you are part of and how tightly knit the relationships are that you have in this network)
Political capital (how close the ties are that you have to the people who make decisions that may affect your future)
Reputation capital (what skills/products/quality you are known for providing on the market)
History of Contingent Labour
As neoliberal globalisation proceeded, and as governments instituted policy changes and corporations responded to global competition by making their labour relations more flexible, the number of people in insecure forms of “informal” labour multiplied to millions
From jobs without education, to education without jobs
There’s been a shift to focus on “contingent labour”: conditional and transitory employment relationships initiated on an on-demand basis when a company has an increased demand for a particular service or product or technology at a particular place and time
A contingent workforce consists of part-time, temporary, seasonal, casual, contract, on-call, freelancers, independent contractors, self-employed, etc., who operate in “atypical work arrangements” outside of a company's payroll because they are not full-time employees of the organization
Intern Nation
Since the global economic recession in 2008, internships have increasingly been replacing secure and stable full-time employment, as companies replace established workers with interns who can do the same job (usually at a lower quality) without companies needing to provide wages or benefits
Internships have become normalized as simply part of being young, and the necessary and natural stepping stone from post-secondary education to a desirable career
Often this dream of being a permanent salaried employee at the company they’re interning at is just falsely perpetuated by the company to get them to work hard. Once their internship contract is over, instead of becoming a full-time employee they are replaced with another intern as a renewable cheap and flexible labour force
The Complicity of the University
Universities and their career services offices work with corporations to match them with students while claiming that there’s an educational component to these internships – even to the point of giving credits for an internship – despite a lot of intern positions having no relevant educational content
Universities and corporations dismiss regular-paying jobs as impractical for resume-building, instead promoting unpaid internships as the only gateway for young people to land a position at the best companies. Entry-level jobs are a thing of the past
Students go into internships eager to please their temporary employers – who they believe could become their permanent employers if they give themselves over to the job and do everything they’re told
The Empty Signification of “Internship”
Unlike more definitive terms such as temp work, summer job, volunteer work, etc. “internship” is a broad concept that doesn’t have a commonly agreed upon definition of what kind of labour it involves
This ambiguity of the intern position is abused by employers to get employees to do anything - such as getting coffee or cleaning around the office – under the guise of “career-building experience”
It is also used to interns’ advantage during resume-building, as they just write buzzwords associated with their internship position without alluding to the specific coffee-getting or cleaning duties it involved
Despite this vagueness as to what it signifies, “internship” carries social weight: it’s commonly understood as a necessary rite of passage for young people to “get their foot in the door,” “pay their dues,” “build their résumé,” “get out what they put in,” “make contacts,” etc.
Media and Pop Culture’s Glamourization of Internships
Inequality of Opportunity in Internships
Internships promote and reproduce inequalities of opportunity: those who can afford to take unpaid internships are those who are already wealthy. Those who can’t afford to work for long periods without pay are effectively shut out from these opportunities
Many economic, political, cultural, and intellectual elites that are now in positions of power once took on (relatively cozy) unpaid internships. These successful former interns who “made it” then perpetuate the system that gave them a start by only selecting for employment opportunities those who have gone through the recognized internship channels
Disney College Internship Program
Disney runs one of the world’s largest internship programs. Each year, 7,000-8,000 college students and recent graduates work fulltime, minimum-wage, menial internships at Disney World
Typical stints last four months, but extended internship programs may last as long as a year. These programs all overlap with the academic year and are scheduled according to Disney’s manpower needs (i.e. more interns employed in peak seasons of business), requiring students to fit their schooling around their internship
No sick days or time off, no available grievance procedures, no guarantees of workers’ compensation or protection against harassment or unfair treatment. Twelve-hour shifts are typical. Interns sign up without knowing what jobs they’ll do
Disney College Internship Program
The work these interns perform is identical to what permanent employees do, and there’s no added supervision, training, or mentoring on the job
The educational component is meant to come from a three- or four-hour class each week, offering some extremely easy university credits. Students are also encouraged to obtain credit through networking, distance-learning, and “individualized learning opportunities.” Many interns do nothing educational at all, given that Disney doesn’t require it
Training and education are clearly afterthoughts: the kids are brought in to work. Having traveled thousands of miles and barely breaking even financially, they find themselves cleaning hotel rooms, performing custodial work, and parking cars
Disney College Internship Program
Like other employers across the country, Disney has figured out how to rebrand ordinary jobs into the internship mold, framing them as part of a structured program – comprehensible to educators and parents, and tapping into culturally-constructed student aspirations requiring careerism and altruism
A number of interns leave the program early because they’re not making any money, they can’t make their bills, and schedulers avoid giving them overtime. Parental support is common
Day-to-day life in the communal housing looks suspiciously like a term of indenture: living on company property, eating company food, and working when the company says so
Through the College Program, a temporary, inexperienced workforce gradually replaces well-trained, decently compensated full-timers, circumventing unions and hurting the local economy
Disney's Collaboration with Universities
Colleges and universities are used as primary recruitment sites for cheap renewable student labour. A harvest of minimum-wage labour masquerades as an academic exercise, with the nodding approval of post-secondary institutions
Disney has dozens of cheerleaders on college and university campuses, including internship coordinators, career counselors, and professors. Educators and campus career development professionals are thrilled to have been consulted by Disney and to feel that they can offer their students a way in to a major name-brand company
The program’s earlier focus on students majoring in hospitality, theme park management, or culinary arts disappeared as Disney ceased to require or seek out students studying particular majors: now you’re more likely to find history majors dunking fries in hot oil and psychology majors cleaning washrooms
Disney's Collaboration with Universities
Many of these educational institutions offer an academic credit to work as an intern for Disney. This way, the university can charge students thousands of dollars in tuition for the semester, then not even have to teach them or be responsible for their learning, as they ship these tuition-paying students off to Disney World to work for free and pay their own way – all in return for a “credit” on paper that costs the university nothing to dole out
The approving educators have been aware from the beginning that the majority of interns work in fast food and sit-down restaurants, park cars, clean up after guests, and perform other routine maintenance tasks – indistinguishable from the work performed by regular employees. They point to “guest contact,” along with showing up on time and being neatly attired, as key educational components
The loosening of immigration regulations in the late 1990s prompted the massive recruitment of International College Program interns, more than 1,000 of whom now come to work at Disney World each year, under questionable interpretations of the J-1 “cultural exchange” and H2B “seasonal work” visas
Disney’s Impact on Local Employment
The expanse of 25,000 acres of former swampland that Disney World operates on is also known as the “Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID),” an administrative jurisdiction signed into law by Florida’s Governor in May 1967 to effectively grant the Walt Disney Corporation free rein over a sizable chunk of central Florida, as if it were its own independent country within the state
RCID continues to operate as the Walt Disney Corporation, allowing the company a quasi-governmental authority over its territory, including the extraordinary power to pay certain taxes to itself and to make land-use and labour-use decisions virtually without obstruction
This unique and extremely favourable arrangement has been one of the principal factors in the remarkable expansion of Disney World attractions over the past two decades—another has been a compliant, scalable workforce of young people, employed at the company’s whim and under educational pretenses
Disney’s Impact on Local Employment
Disney pays little heed to maintaining a healthy balance of full-timers and interns on any given shift, dramatically reducing labour costs but also causing the theme park operations to suffer in general as a result
The unions initially made a handshake agreement over the College Internship program when it was tiny pilot program in 1980, understanding that it would relieve full-timers during the year’s busiest periods. But they have been powerless to stop the program’s massive, year-round expansion
The College Program works to sub-contract labour on Disney World’s grounds away from locals who could benefit from that source of stable and secure employment. Disney has found a way to “insource,” given that Disney World itself can’t be moved offshore
With the gradual casualization of the Disney World workforce, the company has saved itself hundreds of millions of dollars over the years. And with Disney being the largest employer in the region, these changes do significant damage to the area's local economy
