engleski

Precarity of the elite: labouring in the area of contemporary culture and arts in Croatia

Individuals who are professionally engaged in civil society organizations (CSOs) in the field of contemporary culture and arts in Croatia are situated in an ambivalent social and labouring position. On the structural level they represent the elite of the Croatian labour market and society as a whole, while on the individual level they are faced with precarity. Research results show that these members of the cultural and ‘creative class’ structurally represent a smaller part of the Croatian society as they have university degrees and were raised by university educated parents who work in tertiary sector. Moreover, although the unemployment rate in Croatia is high, these creatives have found a working arrangement that enables them to have employment with rather stable income. In spite of the continuing economic crisis in Croatia, they have created a labour market niche for themselves, with ways to fund their production activities mostly through state-funded subsidies for CSOs in the field of culture and the arts. They express high satisfaction with their work, they articulate feeling that they are doing something socially relevant and that they are socially included and even influential. However, on the individual level, their everyday personal and working life is characterized by precarious practices. Their personal and working time have imploded in one ongoing never-ending labour process, where they are constantly involved in material and symbolic re/production. Although they do have a rather stable income, their income level is lower than other employed persons of the same educational level and it comes from several different funding sources. Therefore, this practice of multiple income sources keeps the creatives on the edge of legality. Moreover, working for a CSO, they are not eligible for mortgages or loans and furthermore are more prone to be single and childless. They are constantly multitasking, with more time allocating to financial and bureaucratical tasks, while their basic artistic and cultural interest are pushed aside. They have found themselves in an ‘iron cage of precarity’: they constantly work in order to provide themselves with options and possibilities to be able to continue working. Falling out of the production loop is devastating for labouring in the sector of culture and arts in Croatia. This paper is based on mixed methods empirical study conducted in 2014 and 2015 on the conditions of work in civil society organisations in the field of contemporary arts and culture in Croatia financed by the “Kultura Nova” Foundation. It consisted of two online questionnaires: the first one gathered data on institutional conditions of labour in civil society organizations in contemporary arts and culture (N=93), while the second one explored the issue of personal labour conditions of employees in those organizations (N=111). The secondary data from the data-base of project applications from “Kultura Nova” Foundation was also analysed. Additionally, 22 semi-structured interviews were conducted with leaders of longest-running CSOs in arts and culture, thus providing a comprehensive take on labouring conditions and processes in contemporary arts and culture in Croatia.

precarity, creative labour, labour conditions

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