CUSAS Seminar with Dr Natalie Morningstar

CUSAS Seminar with Dr Natalie MorningstarAn Artistic Precariat? Revisiting Theories of Class and Creativity

This paper examines the enduring relevance of traditional class distinctions among precariously employed workers in post-recession Dublin. It argues that tensions remain between creatives from middle-class families and precariously employed labourers from working-class neighborhoods due to 1) divergent class concepts, 2) a lack of social engagement, and 3) unequal access to economic, social and cultural capital. It holds that the literature on precariatisation has both underestimated fractures internal to the precariat, and overlooked how members of the creative precariat partake in forms of privileged, non-routine, vocational work. Ultimately, I suggest that this case sheds light on an abiding but contested hierarchy of value at the heart of liberal democratic politics, and I make a case for theorising class in terms of freedom toward generativity. 

 

Please register for this event: cusas@socanth.cam.ac.uk