TY - JOUR

T1 - Creative Work, Self-Organizing, and Autonomist Potentiality

T2 - Snapshots taken from Amsterdam's art factories

AU - Cnossen, Boukje

N1 - I would like to thank all respondents and organisations which took part in this research. This article is dedicated to the memory of Julien Haffmans. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The author gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the NWO (grant number 407-12-008), the University of Amsterdam’s CIRCA programme, and the Kunstenbond. Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2018.

PY - 2021/4/1

Y1 - 2021/4/1

N2 - This article argues that while creative spaces are believed to instigate creative production, their strongest value is in producing new possibilities for self-organizing. By zooming in on short snapshots of resistance against gentrification in creative spaces in Amsterdam, I investigate whether small-scale and grass-roots forms of resistance and self-organizing between independent workers in the creative industries can be understood as examples of the autonomist notions of ‘the common’ and ‘the multitude’. By placing observations of creative workers’ self-organizing practices alongside autonomist theory, I suggest that autonomist thought is a promising philosophy for a politicized view of creative production, because it celebrates multiplicity and uniqueness. This is a timely topic in a society with growing numbers of freelancers and increasing flexibilization of labour. This article contributes to research on self-organizing among creative workers and to the literature on work conditions in the creative industries.

AB - This article argues that while creative spaces are believed to instigate creative production, their strongest value is in producing new possibilities for self-organizing. By zooming in on short snapshots of resistance against gentrification in creative spaces in Amsterdam, I investigate whether small-scale and grass-roots forms of resistance and self-organizing between independent workers in the creative industries can be understood as examples of the autonomist notions of ‘the common’ and ‘the multitude’. By placing observations of creative workers’ self-organizing practices alongside autonomist theory, I suggest that autonomist thought is a promising philosophy for a politicized view of creative production, because it celebrates multiplicity and uniqueness. This is a timely topic in a society with growing numbers of freelancers and increasing flexibilization of labour. This article contributes to research on self-organizing among creative workers and to the literature on work conditions in the creative industries.

KW - Science of art

KW - Autonomism

KW - common

KW - creative industries

KW - creative work

KW - multitude

KW - resistance

KW - self-organizing

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85052495344&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/1367549418786411

DO - 10.1177/1367549418786411

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 24

SP - 394

EP - 410

JO - European Journal of Cultural Studies

JF - European Journal of Cultural Studies

SN - 1367-5494

IS - 2

ER -