Be Creative

In this exciting new book Angela McRobbie charts the
'euphoric' moment of the new creative economy, as it
rose to prominence in the UK during the Blair years, and considers
it from the perspective of contemporary experience of economic
austerity and uncertainty about work and employment.

McRobbie makes some bold arguments about the staging of creative
economy as a mode of 'labour reform'; she proposes that
the dispositif of creativity is a fine-tuned instrument for
acclimatising the expanded, youthful urban middle classes to a
future of work without the raft of entitlements and security which
previous generations had struggled to win through the post-war
period of social democratic government.

Adopting a cultural studies perspective, McRobbie re-considers
resistance as 'line of flight' and shows what is at
stake in the new politics of culture and creativity. She incisively
analyses 'project working' as the embodiment of the
future of work and poses the question as to how people who come
together on this basis can envisage developing stronger and more
protective organisations and associations. Scattered throughout the
book are excerpts from interviews with artists, stylists, fashion
designers, policy-makers, and social entrepreneurs.

Autorentext
Angela McRobbie is Professor of Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Zusammenfassung
In this exciting new book Angela McRobbie charts the 'euphoric' moment of the new creative economy, as it rose to prominence in the UK during the Blair years, and considers it from the perspective of contemporary experience of economic austerity and uncertainty about work and employment.

McRobbie makes some bold arguments about the staging of creative economy as a mode of 'labour reform'; she proposes that the dispositif of creativity is a fine-tuned instrument for acclimatising the expanded, youthful urban middle classes to a future of work without the raft of entitlements and security which previous generations had struggled to win through the post-war period of social democratic government.

Adopting a cultural studies perspective, McRobbie re-considers resistance as 'line of flight' and shows what is at stake in the new politics of culture and creativity. She incisively analyses 'project working' as the embodiment of the future of work and poses the question as to how people who come together on this basis can envisage developing stronger and more protective organisations and associations. Scattered throughout the book are excerpts from interviews with artists, stylists, fashion designers, policy-makers, and social entrepreneurs.

Inhalt

Introduction: From The Social Network to The 'Flexible
Frau', Visions of Creative Economy

Chapter One: Unpacking the Politics of Creative Labour: The Rise of
the Urban Hipster Economy

Chapter Two: The Artist as Human Capital: Looking Back at London,
New Labour and the 'Modernisation of Culture'.

Chapter Three: Club to Company

Chapter Four: Gender and Work in the New Creative Economy

Chapter Five: The Time and Space of Creative Labour: A response to
the writing of Richard Sennett

Chapter Six: Fashion Matters Berlin: Start Ups Scenes and Female
Social Enterprise

Chapter Seven: Conclusion; Concepts for Project Working in a
European Frame