Creative Work, Self-Organizing, and Autonomist Potentiality: Snapshots taken from Amsterdam's art factories

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

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.
Original languageEnglish
JournalEuropean Journal of Cultural Studies
Volume24
Issue number2
Pages (from-to)394-410
Number of pages17
ISSN1367-5494
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.04.2021

Bibliographical note

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.

    Research areas

  • Science of art - Autonomism, common, creative industries, creative work, multitude, resistance, self-organizing

DOI

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. Time and Income Poverty: An Interdependent Multidimensional Poverty Approach with German Time Use Diary Data
  2. Motivation and emotion as mediators in multimedia learning
  3. For the good of the people: establishing public value creation as an objective for sustainable entrepreneurship policy
  4. The importance of understanding the multiple dimensions of power in stakeholder participation for effective biodiversity conservation
  5. Final departure
  6. Spectral Kinetic Simulation of the Ideal Multipole Resonance Probe
  7. Generalizing Trust
  8. Parameters, concepts and the terminology of outer space law: a review of the essential facilities served by outer space activities and the rules of interpretation for treaty law and soft law guidelines.
  9. A Systematic Literature Review Of Machine Learning Approaches For The Prediction Of Delivery Dates
  10. Embedded Self-Managing Modes of Organizing
  11. Gli endorsement
  12. New Sediment Cores Reveal Environmental Changes Driven by Tectonic Processes at Ancient Helike, Greece
  13. Intergenerational knowledge transfer: What do we know, and where do we go from here?
  14. Seduced by the label
  15. Determinants and Management of Make-­and-Buy
  16. Characterization of the microstructure evolution in IF-Steel and AA6016 during plane-strain tension and simple shear
  17. Towards a Sustainable Use of Phosphorus
  18. Frustrated and helpless - sources and consequences of students’ negative deactivating emotions in university mathematics
  19. Calibration of a simple method for determining ammonia volatilization in the field - Comparative measurements in Henan Province, China
  20. Conclusion
  21. Semi-polar root exudates in natural grassland communities
  22. Model choice and size distribution: a Bayequentist approach
  23. Sustainability assessments designed for multiple functions
  24. Evaluation of Magnesium Die-Casting Alloys for Elevated Temperature Applications
  25. Strategic Spatial Planning
  26. Characteristics, emerging needs, and challenges of transdisciplinary sustainability science
  27. Values shift in response to social learning through deliberation about protected areas
  28. The Efficacy of a Web-Based Stress Management Intervention for Employees Experiencing Adverse Working Conditions and Occupational Self-efficacy as a Mediator
  29. Green Big Data: A Green IT/Green IS Perspective on Big Data
  30. Es geht auch anders!
  31. Mapping forest ecosystem services
  32. Beyond synchrony
  33. Performativity, performance studies and digital cultures
  34. Metacommunity, mainland-island system or island communities?
  35. Art and Culture as an Urban Development Tool
  36. When do customers engage with a company?
  37. Human–learning–machines: introduction to a special section on how cybernetics and constructivism inspired new forms of learning
  38. Briefe schreiben in der Sekundarstufe I
  39. Linguistic Determines Mathematics