Book Launch: The Creativity Hoax: Precarious Work and the Gig Economy

We would like to invite you to attend the launch of The Creativity Hoax: Precarious Work and the Gig Economy, a newly published book co-authored by Institute for Culture and Society researcher, Associate Professor George Morgan.

'The Creativity Hoax' argues that creativity, the leitmotif of new capitalism, has become a key neo-liberal idiom for reorganizing work and working life in ways that erode communal bonds, loyalties and values and blur the boundaries between work and play, public and private. However, the creative economy remains a largely unrealized project, a fantasy of regeneration. Despite the inflated rhetoric of vocational fulfilment, much work performed in the West remains low-skilled and low-paid. Very few make a living exclusively from creative labour whether as employees, freelancers, or entrepreneurs. For the most part it is transnational cultural corporations that reap the patentable or copyrightable bounty, belying the egalitarian myths of the new economy. [NP] The challenge for capital has been to habituate the precariat to the condition of abeyance. In order to tolerate un/underemployment or jobs where skills and talents are underutilized (retail, hospitality or on the edges of creative industries), young workers need to be persuaded that vocational fulfilment and financial security are attainable. 'The Creativity Hoax' draws on extensive interview and observation research with creative aspirants - from technical, production and performance fields - who wrestle with the prospect and reality of poverty and unfulfilled ambition.

Join us at 6pm on Wednesday 31 October at The Gasoline Pony, Marrackville, where Professor Susan Luckman, head of the Creative Industries School at the University of South Australia, will launch the new book.

The event is free to attend, but please register on Eventbrite for catering purposes: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/the-creativity-hoax-precarious-work-and-the-gig-economy-book-launch-tickets-50205657473(opens in a new window)