ThediversityofworkintheCreativeandCulturalIndustries:MakingitworkforBrussels

CASESTUDY:CulturalandCreativeSector(CCS)ofBrussels• Definitionof“CCS”asinThrosby(2008)andadoptedbytheBCR• WhyfocusingonCCSinBrusselstoday?

à European,federalandlocalpolicypriorityà Recently:CCSareconsideredtobeimportantinurbanand

economicdevelopmentstrategies,but“creativecities”theories(Florida,Landry,...)needcriticalevaluations

à Brusselsasuniquecase:• Superdiversity (Vertovec,Corijn)• Complexinstitutionalandpolicystructureoffers

opportunitiesandconstraintsforCCS• Challengeofsocio-spatialdualisation ofthecity

• GeneralResearchQuestion:à HowdoesitworkforBrussels?

DiversityofWork DiversityofWorkers

• Separateartworlds:Francophone,Flemish,Urbanarts,Maghrebi,Socio-cultural….circuitsareclosedwithfewoverlappingsocialnetworks

• Precarity isnormalizedstateofemployment

• Differencesinworkingconditions:• Flemishculturalcircuit

versusfrancophoneculturalcircuit

• ‘Frontstage’artisticworkersversus‘Backstage’supportingservices

• Withintheartisticfrontstage:duallabormarket• White,masculine,middle-

agedversusyoung,non-white,feminine

• Artists’strategiestoovercomebarriers:• DIYartists• Ethnicmarketeering• Optingout:informal

initiatives

SpatialEmbeddedness

• Researchingthe“emergingactors”oftheculturalandcreativesectorandtheir“informalpractices”

• Whoarethey?Wherearetheyandforwhichreasons?Whataretheirneeds?

• Howdoculturalandcreativeactorsusetheirspaces(realandvirtual)?

• Howdotheyconsidertheirlocalenvironmentandwhatinfluencedoesithasontheirwork?

• Differentconceptionsoftheculturalworkàlinkedtodifferentconceptionsoflocalsocialenvironmentandpublic.

à Culturalworkbetweenredistribution&recognitionperspective(Fraser,2005).

Jean-LouisGenard(ULB),JudithLeMaire(ULB),FrançoisRinschbergh(ULB/USL-B),ChristineSchaut(ULB/USL-B),EvaSwyngedouw(VUB/ULB),KarelVanhaesebrouck(ULB),BasVanHeur(VUB),JefVlegels(VUB)andWalterYsebaert(VUB)

Throsby(2008)

Moreinfo:www.creativework.brussels