****Apologies for cross-posting****
Working with Freedom: Learning about innovative risk mediation strategies from entrepreneurs in creative industries
Call for Papers: Association of American Geographers (AAG), New York, February 24-28 2012
Organizers:
Melanie Fasche – HafenCity University Hamburg
Brian J. Hracs – University of Toronto
Operating within a highly competitive and dynamic marketplace, entrepreneurs in local creative industries, including fashion designers, artists, and independent musicians are constantly negotiating risk and freedom. The pitfalls of flexibility including self-exploitation, multi-skilling and forms of spatial and temporal fragmentation limit opportunities for autonomy, creative fulfillment and economic self-sufficiency. In recent years geographers have explored this ‘dark side’ of creative labor. In particular, research has focused on financial and contractual uncertainties, social costs, and the individualization associated with neoliberalism and enterprise culture (McRobbie 2002; Jarvis and Pratt 2006; Banks 2007; Ross 2009). Last year in Seattle we examined these themes in our session ‘Working with Risk’ but now we want to probe the possibility of ‘actually existing’ freedom. In particular, we want to explore innovative strategies that help these workers mediate risk, realize freedom and attain success in the creative economy. Rather than focusing on global stars we are interested in local heroes who derive a sustainable living from their creative business models and products. These individuals operate in local scenes as self-employed entrepreneurs, freelancers, collectives and groups in music, new media, fashion, art, publishing, design, architecture, film and advertising.
This session will provide a forum to highlight and unpack successful entrepreneurial strategies and assess their ability to inform policy at multiple scales and travel across industries and locations. We welcome papers from diverse conceptual and empirical perspectives that discuss solutions to common challenges such as market saturation and competition, financial and social insecurity, work/life articulation, multi-skilling and what Angela McRobbie calls the ‘corrosion of creativity.’
Additional topics might include but are not limited to:
- Strategies to market, brand and monetize creative content
- Enrolling the consumer into the production process through crowd-funding, co-promotion and customization
- Using space in flexible ways such as shared work-space, pop-up store fronts and web-based promotion and distribution
- Collective strategies for collaboration within and across creative occupations including pooling resources and cross-promotion
- Innovative policies to fund, support and incubate local creative start-ups
- Diffusion, variation and adoption of these strategies across industries, time, space and scale
Please email abstracts of 250 words or less by Friday September 9th 2011 to Melanie Fasche ([log in to unmask]) and Brian J. Hracs ([log in to unmask]).
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