Escaping the precarity trap: a call for creative labour policy

Abstract

Drawing on a review of policy papers and cultural statistics from Canada and Europe, among others, this paper confirms a widespread belief in creative economy policies as panacea for revitalizing economies, while noting a general failure to acknowledge the role and the needs of creative workers. Existing policy instruments are mostly uncoordinated but can be divided into four categories entitled ‘education and training’, ‘awards and contests’, ‘business support’ and ‘social security policies’, with the greatest emphasis on the first three. Escaping the precarity trap – precarity meaning existence without security – typical of much cultural work requires a rehabilitated notion of ‘flexicurity’ that includes exceptionalist, sub-sectoral, sectoral and generalist strategies to support cultural workers. The authors argue for a more holistic policy framework that uses a rights-based perspective and emphasizes social security measures. This approach, which we term ‘creative ecology’, is based on the intersection of social, labour and cultural policy. This paper thereby begins the response to calls to academics, practitioners and policy analysts to provide a route map out of the demoralized terrain of neo-liberalism with respect to cultural work.