Review article
Around the Present Perfect, or: Discussing the Present State of Capitalist Restoration through the Issue of Precarious Labour
Ivana Hanaček
Abstract
Starting from the statement that the term “post-socialism” often opens up room for a depoliticized game of displacement, in which the preferred option is to reflect on the past or project into the future instead of considering the current conditions of cultural production, the author approaches the topic from beyond this situation of displacement. The aim of the paper is to clarify the issue of precarious labour in the present-day, neoliberal circumstances on the basis of several positions of artists who have approached the issue of working conditions on the art scene from two angles: through representation and through concrete political action – collective acts, self-organization, public articulation of artistic work as a specific phenomenon, various attempts at regulating the artist-institution relations, etc. Thereby the author questions the notion of the precariate as a homogeneous “new class” and, underlining the complexity of the term, indicates its presence in all social classes, as well as its immanence in the field of art, regardless of the typology of the production matrix.
Keywords
precarious labour; class; flexibilization; neoliberal capitalism; artistic production; exploitation; mobility; European Union; working conditions
Hrčak ID:
185598
URI
Publication date:
1.7.2014.
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