Controlling the uncontrollable: ‘Agile’ teams and illusions of autonomy in creative work

Abstract

The creative industries have recently been hailed as presenting a liberating model for the future of work and a valuable terrain on which to examine purported new regimes of workplace control. This article, based on the empirical examination of a Canadian video game development studio, traces the modes of control which operate on and through project teams in creative settings. The impact of the adoption of an ‘emancipatory’, post-bureaucratic project management technology, ‘Agile’, is critically examined through interviews and non-participative observation of management, technical and artistic labour within one project team. The potential for autonomy in such ‘Agile’ teams is critically assessed within the managerial regime of creative production and the broader power relations implied by the financial, organizational and institutional context.