Creating the craft worker : verifying and enhancing the current understanding of craft workers.

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Creating the craft

worker: Verifying and

enhancing the current

understanding of

craft workers.

By: Jack Harris

10601260

Master Thesis for Human

Geography

Supervisor: Barbara Heebels

23.6.14

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Abstract

The craft worker is a new and heavily under-researched area of the creative economy, yet one that appears to have great relevance and importance in the creative economy and its literature. Craft workers have been deemed non-artistic and supportive to artistic workers, amongst other things, and this research aims to investigate that claim by verifying and improving the current definition provided by Banks (2010). The same author also calls for further research into craft workers and this study aims to supply that research by investigating how the relationship craft workers have with artistic workers functions, with particular focus on how they combine within the creative process of the London based events production industry and the reasoning behind why artistic workers hire them in their latent networks. Interviews and participant observation will be triangulated to ensure an in-depth and unique methodology, which will provide the best possible scenario for a comprehensive understanding of the relationship. The research aims to confirm the relevance of the craft worker, while enhancing the current understanding of, and broadening the scope of, craft worker research and concludes with possible ideas for further research.

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List of tables and figures

Table 1: Clusters of creative industry in the UK ... 5

Table 2: Worker roles ... 7

Figure 1: Hierarchy and relationships during the production of the event ... 8

Figure 2: Timeline of an event ... 10

Table 3: Methodological positions ... 24

Table 4: Methodology type ... 26

Table 5: Types of participant observation ... 29

Table 6: Data collection ... 31

Figure 3: Craft worker creative input pyramid ... 37

Table 7: Craft worker categorization on an award show... 51

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1. Introduction

The creative economy, which is the area of the wider economy that is concerned with the transactions of creative products, has become a major body of literature within recent years and one that encompasses a wide array of topics, ranging from its manifestation in society to its organization (Howkins, 2001). It has, however, continuously suffered from issues related to definitions and often from a lack of understanding as it is so broad and complex. Arising from the lack of understanding of creative workers, Banks (2010) has introduced the craft worker as a distinct type of creative worker. This thesis is devised from the ambition to further scrutinise the craft worker in the creative economy and develop the fledgling craft worker literature, as called for by Banks (2010). In his article, Banks (2010) presents a reasoned description of craft workers, a coherent argument for their importance and status, as well as articulating why they will remain important for the foreseeable future. The importance of craft workers outlined provides the encouragement needed for this paper to answer the call for further research in the area, and subsequently it will seek to verify and expand the current knowledge base on craft workers.

The first aim of the paper is to query the current definition of craft workers provided by Banks (2010, p. 305), which is that craft labour is ‘not just in referral to the traditional specific crafts (such as woodworking and embroidery), but that it is a specific input of the industrial labour process combined with the attitude that configures that labour’. In order for future research on craft workers to be productive the definition must be suitable, thus this research will confirm or deny what Banks (2010) has stated, as well as advance the definition if and where necessary. Craft workers are thought to provide a vital and understated input in the production of creative products and along with artistic workers provide the basis for much of the creative economy (Banks, 2010, p. 305). If the definition is wrong and they are misunderstood, then that is a large section of one of the most important areas of the economy and economic geography research that is being misunderstood. The second aim is to understand how craft workers’ relationship with artistic workers functions and it is vital for a better knowledge of the craft worker and the creative industries, as well expanding the literature. Other than Banks’ (2010) limited description, no one has attempted to discuss the relationships that craft workers may have. This research will focus on the relationship with artistic workers, as did Banks (2010), because it is with them that they have the most important relationship, which needs to be properly understood before additional relationships can be investigated. The first aspect of the relationship that will be investigated is the contention that craft workers have a ‘non-artistic’ role in this relationship (Banks, 2010, p.305). It is vital in order to avoid miscalculating the input of the artist and to award credit for their input to craft workers where it is due. More importantly, however, Banks’ (2010, p.305) description of craft workers as ‘non-artistic’ is a claim that labels all craft workers in that way and subsequently must be a valid claim to avoid incorrect generalizations. The second aspect of this aim is to understand how latent networks influence artistic workers’ decisions in regards to hiring craft workers and how this affects the economic and social position of craft workers. Many of the industries of the creative economy function using the network organization of latent networks because the benefits, which will be explained in detail in section 2.3.3, are conducive of the project ecologies found within the creative industries. This will reveal information about why artists find craft workers beneficial and how the relationship functions, as well as expanding the knowledge of latent networks to a previously

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Jack Harris 2 uninvestigated area. This is very important to do since the network is such an important part of economic geography research. Likewise is understanding the economic pressures facing workers, something that will be provided through the investigation of how the economic and social position of craft workers is affected by latent networks.

In order to investigate the craft worker and the way their relationship with artistic workers functions, both interviews and participant observation will be used in order to get as close to them as possible and thus increase the validity of this research. While interviews are a relatively popular method, research into economic geography is dominated by quantitative methods and very rarely uses participant observation (Yeung and Kelly, 2007). The use of this method makes this research quite unique and has a strong chance of making observations that are previously undocumented. Particularly, it can offer a detailed understanding of why the relationship functions the way it does, as opposed to simply how it functions. To increase the chance of accurate findings, the methods will be triangulated to give them a strength of depth which contains both the researcher’s findings and the participant’s opinions. While interviews are often used in economic geography, they are very rarely triangulated with participant observation and this will add even more depth to the already rich findings that interviews produce. Participant observation will be carried out at a number of award shows produced by Capitol House Productions (CHP), a London based event production firm with over 40 years of experience in the industry. As section 1.2 will reveal, using a London based firm is significant in this research as it has arguably the best geographical context for research into the creative economy. The author will become a member of the production team and work with both the artists and craft workers involved, giving him ample time to understand the relationships and to experience first-hand how craft workers operate. These same workers will then be interviewed in order to ascertain how they themselves see craft workers and how their relationship with artistic workers functions. This chapter will continue to provide justification for this research, before providing the important contextual knowledge required to understand the case study as it is such a unique selection, as well as its suitability.

1.1 The theoretical significance of the study

Banks (2010) began his work into craft workers in order to enhance the understanding of the creative economy and to solve some of the ambiguities that surround creative workers. In doing so, he has provided the basic understanding of a new type of creative worker, that is both distinct from what the literature previously held yet also has synergy with other types of creative worker such as the artistic worker. However, while his work is a strong initial start, there has been a lack of follow up research on the topic and the literature remains very small. This stagnation of research is reflected in the necessity of this research to query Banks’ (2010) definition, as the lack of further research has meant that the definition has not been tested or refined. By providing an enhanced definition and representation of the craft worker, all future research on the craft worker will have an increasingly reliable definition to draw upon, which will hopefully be reflected in the quality of that research. Having a more reliable knowledge of what a craft worker is will also mean that it can gain popularity as a term and be used correctly to properly identify specific workers, rather than having everyone grouped as a creative worker. It will also aid research into artistic and other types of creative workers, as they will have a more recognized craft worker to be compared against.

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This research can also aid research into artistic workers more directly by analyzing the relationship with them. Understanding how the craft worker interacts with another type of creative worker is sensible considering that the craft worker has been formulated through a disaggregation of the creative worker. While Banks (2010) has briefly touched on this by claiming craft workers to be supportive of artistic workers, it is in a very simplified and generalized way. He goes, however, recognize the importance of understanding the proper values of input from craft and artistic workers, stating that it is important to analyze craft workers in order ‘to avoid over-estimating the contribution of the artist to the production of cultural goods’ (Banks, 2010, p. 305) and because the craft worker has such a significant role in the range of the often hidden labour tasks in production. By questioning to what extent craft workers influence or provide an input to the final product, this research hopes to ascertain a better understanding of the importance that craft workers have for artistic workers and for the final product, as well as how the two types of workers interact with each other. This has important implications for the continued importance of the craft worker since their input to the final product will go a long way towards deciding how important, or unimportant they are within the creative economy. This will be explained further in section 3.2.

The reasons behind the way the relationship between craft and artistic workers is organized are something else that is not directly covered in the literature and is something that this study aims to add. It is known through research into organizational networks that latent networks are very frequently used in the creative economy, but nothing is known in this instance as to why artistic workers hire craft workers in their latent networks other than the two possible contentions in the literature, that they are primarily driven by economic desires to reduce costs or that the quality advantages of working in latent networks is the inspiration. The first significance of understanding latent networks is because they are so important for the creative economy and are responsible for allowing it to function in a certain way, understanding them thus increases the understanding of the creative economy as a whole. Research on latent networks in the creative economy is still relatively new and needs continued progression in previously ignored areas, such as on craft workers, in order to provide a fuller understanding of the organizational structure of the creative economy. Through investigating this, the opportunity arises to assess the social and economic position of the craft worker, with particular attention paid to their relationship with the new precariat. Hesmondhalgh and Baker (2010) have proposed that creative workers as a whole are at a high risk of entering into the new precariat, which consists of the workers from a number of industries which have insecure employment. An aim of this research is to ascertain the extent to which craft workers could be located in the precariat. Consequently, by researching why artistic workers hire craft workers in latent networks, it will not only enhance the literature on craft workers, but also artistic and creative workers, latent networks, and the new precariat, as section 3.3 will show.

1.2 The practical significance of the study

It is unsurprising that craft worker research has been initiated by a British author, as it is the same nation that commenced the focus on developing creative industries and continues to encourage it. The UK and its New Labour Government policy makers were the first to realize the potential of the creative industries and set up the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in 1997, as well as the Creative Industries Task Force, in order to gain a comprehensive idea of the current state of the UK’s creative industries and to draw up a plan to improve them. The importance of them was

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Jack Harris 4 immediately seen and other countries began to follow suite as soon as the following year, for example Germany set up the ‘Office of Cultural Economic research’ in 1998 (Kulturwirtschaft, 2014). A DCMS document also released in 1998 brought the term ‘creative industries’ to British mainstream politics, and was used globally soon after. Since then, policies have been continuously released in order to develop creative industries in the UK and table 1 highlights the locations where clusters of creative industries are now present. The UK creative industries are, as of 2013, thought to be worth more than £36 billion a year, employ 1.5 million people, and account for £1 in every £10 of the UK’s exports (GOV.UK, 2013a).

London itself has benefited most from the growth in creative industries and it is a major focus of its economic development. Numerous re-developments aimed at improving the creative industries, such as Silicon roundabout in Shoreditch, have ensured that London has grown to be one of the world’s leading cities for the creative industries. Clusters of creative industries are now rife throughout London (Table 1), yet the focus on developing even more creative clusters in areas of London is unrelenting and a recent conference highlighted at least 8 more as targets (Creativeclusters, 2014). This continued focus is unsurprising considering London’s label as the ‘world creative capital’, which is justified by the overseas demand for UK creative industries that warranted the UK Trade and Investment to invest 500 million into ensuring this demand is met (GOV.UK, 2013b). But it is not just London, the UK creative industries as a whole are receiving massive investment. The most recent government budget allocated extra funding to the creative industries in an attempt to increase overall economic growth and the Creative Industries Minister, Ed Vaizey stated that the UK has world class creative industries that the government are committed to supporting in order to keep them ahead of their rivals (GOV.UK, 2013c).

Table 1 and the previous paragraphs demonstrate how - according to government documentation - significant creative industries are in the UK currently and how vital they are to ensuring economic growth. It is thus unsurprising that an event production firm based in London will be used as a case study in order to collect data, as the importance of the creative industries in London make it a natural choice for this project and an ideal place to improve the knowledge of the craft worker. It is subsequently integral that craft workers are understood so that research can capture this aspect of a burgeoning economy and help it develop.

This research is born from a call from within the literature and much of the focus of it is to improve the understanding of craft workers and other related literatures, but it needs to be noted that it may have a vast amount of practical influence outside of academia, even if not specifically designed for it. As this section has demonstrated, the creative economy is a very important part of the UK economy and this is reflected in its frequent presence in policy. With the understanding and development of the creative economy a clear focus for the British Government, this research will have definite implications for their future policy. Indeed, Banks (2010, p. 305) noted that craft labour ‘appears to be becoming more, rather than less, significant to creative industry production and policy-making’ and highlights a policy shift that focusses on developing the skills and employability of craft and artistic skills rather than just simply training artists (DCMS, 2008). Consequently, the focus of this research on developing the understanding of what craft workers exactly are, what their input to the product is and why they are hired by the artist, fits perfectly with the current focus on policy that is highlighted by Banks (2010).

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Table 1: Clusters of creative industry in the UK

Industry

Location of clusters

Advertising South of London (from St Albans to Tunbridge Wells and Guildford).

A southern belt around Manchester and Birmingham and its southern counties, Warwickshire and Worcestershire.

Higher than average agglomeration in Blackpool and Harrogate and Ripon.

Architecture Concentrated in construction hotspots such as Aberdeen, Newcastle, Southampton and Portsmouth.

Arts and Antiques Very evenly distributed across the UK.

Designer Fashion Midlands, North London and around Manchester.

Video, Film and Photography Very highly concentrated in London and its surrounding westerly areas. As well as Brighton, Bristol and Bath.

Music and the Visual and Performing Arts

London, Brighton, Bath and the South West of England.

Publishing Strong concentration in Oxford, Bath and Minehead.

Significant specialization in London, Cambridge, Peterborough, Ludlow and the North of Scotland.

Software, Computer Games and Electronic Publishing

Clustering around the West of London, around a triangle of Oxford-Cambridge-Reading, and between

Blackpool and Manchester.

Radio and TV Very strong level of concentration with high agglomeration in London and its surrounding areas

(Wycombe and Slough), Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Salford and the North of Wales and Scotland.

Created by author using data from Chapain et al (2010, p. 15).

1.3 An introduction to an events production firm

At first glance the event production firm and the way they produce an event is hard to follow, consequently, the following two sections will describe the firm and the process of how they work. This is a firm that produces a very unique output and one that is not found in the literature, thus the following description is based entirely off detailed explanations from those employed by the firm and from the author’s observations during the planning phase of this research and the data collection phase.

Event production firms are those that a client pays to ensure that an event of their choosing is organized, this could be a concert, a theatre show, a drinks evening, or in the context of this

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Jack Harris 6 research, an award show. While not belonging to a specific category of table 1, they would fit best into the categories containing the visual arts, as well as ‘video, film and photography’ because of the very visual presentation of the award show, categories that are highly concentrated in London. The client will come to the firm with a list of requirements and ideas as to what they want included in the design of the event and they will discuss a budget in which to do this, it is then the role of the firm to take over every aspect of production, from the hiring of production staff to the booking of the venue and design of the set, and ensure everything happens.

The firms themselves are often small with only a few offices, they then rent a venue for the specific event. London acts a cluster for the event production industry, not just because it provides the office space for the firms, but because there is such an abundance of venues where the actual events can be hosted. For instance, Park Lane alone has 3 major hotels and a further 2 on adjacent roads which have function rooms suitable for award shows. This is one particular hub, but there are many spread around London such as the purpose built ExCel Arena in the Docklands, and there is no particular key hub. Typically, the owners of the firms will be the account handlers, usually with a specific skill, such as design or technical expertise. They, along with the production director will deal with clients, taking the briefs and offering solutions, as well as responsibility for delivery. Also in these firms there is likely a creative director and possibly a technical director, but this is not always the case. There will also be back up staff and possibly production assistants, who will assist in day-to-day running of the office. These firms are deliberately small to keep down running costs, and will outsource freelance workers, such as technicians and local crew, when there is more work than they can handle or they need specific skills that are not in-house. These workers will then be given specific briefs about what is expected of them for the event so that they can properly prepare, then arrive on site with the correct kit and equipment, and extra personnel, if necessary.

It should also be noted that there are a small number of larger production firms with a greater number of in-house staff, but they exploit the freelance system in much the same way as the smaller firms, bringing in freelancers when work demands, just to a lesser extent. The firm followed in this research is very small and only has a production director, creative director and support staff within it. Instead of having full time technical directors, technicians and production assistants, they choose to hire freelance workers every time because of the relationships they have built up with these people. The number of different types of workers involved in the production of these shows is confusing and a full rundown is shown in table 2 and hierarchically explained in figure 1, the next section seeks to explain how these workers combine to produce a typical event.

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Table 2: Worker roles

Worker

Role

Client This is a representative of a firm or organization that wishes to have an award show to celebrate its particular industry or a special occasion. Their role in the process is to broker an agreement between them and the production firm about what the award show needs to contain and what the budget will be. The client is the person who ultimately needs to be kept happy and have their demands met where they can, particularly as most awards shows are annual and a happy client will generally mean repeat business.

Firm owner This person is generally only concerned with making a profit for the firm. They will, however, typically have some experience as either a production, creative or technical director, so they are well aware of how the business works. Their role is predominantly in the early stages and involves brokering an agreement with the client; they then let the production director and team produce the actual event. Production

director

The primary artist of the award show, this person is in charge of everything and has the responsibility of supplying the award show on behalf of the firm owner. They take demands from the client, match it with the input from their technical and creative directors and produce a plan for the award show to be enacted on the day of the show.

Creative director

This person is in charge of the graphics and videos that go on the screens at the show, as well as helping create the overall design of the set. The client will typically give them a list of information that needs to be displayed, such as the nominees and winners of each award. The creative director will then display this information in such a manner to make it attractive.

Technical director

This person is consulted by the production director about what can be done in terms of lighting, video or sound, depending on their specialism. They will be provided with information about what the client wants and they will inform the production

director whether this is possible and how it could be improved. They will also organize their technical team to ensure everything happens.

Technicians These are people most often employed by their technical directors to set up and take down the equipment on the day and to operate the controls during the event. Production

assistants

Hired by the production director, these are some of their trusted assistants and are required to help them ensure that the production set-up runs seamlessly and to deal with any problems that emerge.

Set builder This is a company that is hired by the production director to create a custom built set that fits the requirements of the client and is designed by the production and creative director. It will be made in segments, which will then be transferred to the venue on the day, and set up either by a local crew or by a team of workers sent by the set building firm themselves.

Local crew This is a team of workers, often with a crew chief that keeps them in check, that are hired to perform basic roles such as unloading trucks, putting up staging and other general basic tasks, but tasks that often require heavy lifting. They are used to help assist the production director or the technicians.

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Figure 1: Hierarchy and relationships during the production of the event

The top segment represents those who are ultimately in control in this hierarchy. The middle segment represents those who are highly skilled and specialized. The bottom segment contains those who are there to help out everyone.

1.4 An introduction to an award show

This section, along with figure 2, will give an idea how a typical award show is produced by the firm. Initially, the client enters into discussions with the owner of the firm and the production director. Here they will discuss the feasibility of the client’s demands, both in terms of the design and in terms of the cost. This discussion will be ongoing as demands change and new possibilities appear, but once a rough idea is determined the next stage of meetings can begin, which are the design meetings. Here, the production director will discuss ways in which they could make the demands of the client happen with their technical and creative directors. If the client wants something simple or perhaps they are a repeat client, this process may be very simple. However, if the client wants something particularly innovative, then the onus is on the production, creative and technical directors to create something new and interesting, thus the discussions will take longer, possibly months, and all the while the budget will have to be considered. Once these discussions are done, the owner will typically take a step back and let the production director produce the event, as their job of ensuring a profit has been fulfilled, although they will periodically ensure that everything is running smoothly or will provide assistance where required.

After a period of time the final design will be decided upon and aspects such as date, time and venue can be set in stone, along with securing a presenter or host which is often an entertainer. Once this is all sorted, the production director and technical directors can now begin to ensure that everything is in place. The production director will begin to hire the production assistants and the local crew that are necessary for the event and allow them to prepare for it, as well as putting in an order for a custom set if necessary, to be produced by a set building company. The technical and creative directors hired will now know the final design and will then produce what is needed. Typically, the

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creative director will produce the videos and graphics that need to be displayed and the respective technical directors will ensure that the lighting, sound and video are all prepared for the show and will arrange for their technicians to be present to set all of the equipment up on the day.

Once all the preparatory work has been concluded, the next work takes place on the day of the event, occasionally the day before if it is a very big event. Work starts at 5am in what is called a load in, where vans will queue up to arrive at the venue in turn, which contain the equipment needed for the event. The production director will have arranged for these vans to arrive and will also have arranged for the local crew to arrive at the same time in order to unload these vans. Once the first van is unloaded, which is typically the set, the local crew, aided by a production assistant, begin to construct the set.

Over the next few hours, more vans will arrive along with their respective owners to unload, for example, the sound technicians will arrive along with their van full of equipment. The local crew and whoever is on hand will help to unload and then the technicians, along with the help of the local crew when needed, will then set up the equipment. While these vans are arriving, the set-up is happening and slowly but surely the venue is being transformed into the final design. During this period the production director will arrive on set and make sure everything is going well. Just as this phase has some overlap with the load in, it also has some overlap with the rehearsals stage.

The rehearsals stage begins with the arrival of the client. The first stage of the rehearsals is for the production director and client, occasionally along with others, to walk around and discuss everything that has been constructed so far. Here the client can assess if they want anything done differently and whether that can be done. As the construction of the set is completed, all staff that are not needed on the show will begin to disappear such as the local crew, some production assistants and unneeded technicians. This completion also means that rehearsals can begin. During these rehearsals, the production director will be talking everyone through what is going to happen, the award show host will learn the procedure, the technical directors will have a chance to see if everything is working well and production assistants will be able to familiarise themselves with any jobs they have to perform. During this period, changes will often be made as it is the first chance people have to actually see what the plan looks like. Subsequently, the lighting director may decide that a different type of lighting would be a better choice at a certain stage or the production director may ask for a slightly quieter or louder sound at a certain time.

Following the rehearsals, any last minute changes will be performed and then it’s simply another running of the award show just like in the rehearsals, but for real this time. All those who remain when the award show starts are the technicians because they are needed to run their respective technical segments, the production director because they are required to show-call and make sure that everything happens as it should, and often production assistants which are required to do odd jobs during the show or perhaps even running the backstage area to ensure that people go on and off the stage at the right time. Once the award show has run its course, the local crew return to do the de-rig. This is the process where everyone involved takes down everything as quickly as possible and puts it back into the vans it came from, to be driven back to storage. Depending on the size of the event this can take many hours, but always finishes with the venue returned back to its previous state.

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2. Literature review

The previous section sought to outline and provide sufficient contextual knowledge of the research, the following section will now provide the literature and theoretical framework which underpins it. Despite the lack of literature on craft workers, there remains a large amount of literature that is relevant in the shaping of this research which needs to be discussed here, starting with an overview of the creative economy, moving on to the types of creative worker and detailing the emergence of the craft worker, before discussing the latent network form of organization most commonly used by these firms and that will be important in answering one of the research questions.

2.1 The creative economy

When performing research into the creative economy it is a requirement to understand the importance embedded within it, as well as the large amount of multivalency and definitional confusion that can deflect from this importance, not least the use of the term cultural economy in an often synonymous way (Pratt and Jeffcutt, 2009). The creative economy has been around for numerous decades now under the guise of one name or another and has subsequently accumulated a number of different names, of which five are described in a report as ‘the most common terms in use’ (Creative metropoles, 2014, p. 4) since there are even more that are occasionally used. The creative economy and the cultural economy are the most frequently used names and the only real separation between the two is that one is in referral to the initial set of cultural industries that emerged during Fordism (see: Adorno and Horkheimer, 1977) and the second is in referral to the previous cultural industries plus the creative industries that have emerged after being enabled by the most recent technological advances such as the internet (see: Cunningham, 2001). For simplicity, this article will avoid delving deeper and indulging the definitional complexities that surround this industry and refer to it as only the creative economy from now on, as this is the most popular term at the current time (Pratt and Jeffcutt, 2009).

As for the importance, the vast body of literature that has accumulated under the title creative economy has not happened without issue. Scholars have long been resistant to the merging of creative (previously cultural) and economic geographies under the creative economy (previously cultural economy) banner (Crang, 1997 and Sayer, 1997), and it is only relatively recently that these contestations have lost their following and validity as geographical research on the creative economy has grown very popular and has repeatedly provided important research, as this chapter will highlight (Garnham, 2005). Its significance can be measured not just in the volume of publications from within geography, but also from subjects such as sociology (Zukin, 1995 and du Gay and Pryke, 2002), urban planning (Landry, 2000), and media and communication studies (Cunningham, 2001 and Hesmondhalgh, 2002).

The best example of why it is that research into the creative economy is so important is that many consider it to have developed to such an extent that it is now in the process of altering capitalism, the biggest driver of change in our society which affects it on a global scale (Scott, 2007). Castells’ (1996) seminal work on the rise of the network society was one of the first to identify this shift, stating that a change in technological focus from energy to information had triggered the global

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Jack Harris 12 expansion of networks that were now concerned with the manipulation of information in the quest for increased productivity. Scott (2007) has since advanced Castells’ (1996) ideas and written of a new cognitive capitalism that has been ushered in through the growth of the cultural-economy and the proliferation of the knowledge worker. The manipulation of information is integral to the growth of the economy and it is the knowledge worker that handles and distributes that information and adds value in the economy (Mosco and McKercher, 2007. The growth of new leading economic sectors which are rife with these knowledge workers such as the creative industries, which are technologically intense and driven by new digital technologies, combine with radically flexible and destabilized labour relations and marked intensification of competition in all spheres of the economy to create a unique and concrete expression of capitalist economic order, which has both physical and social ramifications and is most concentrated in the world’s leading cities.

London is one of the best illustrations of how the cultural-cognitive capitalism is manifest physically and socially. It is one of the large metropolitan clusters, along with others such as New York and Paris that have the command and control capabilities to operate in both global and local markets and are subsequently deemed the hubs of this capitalism (Sassen, 1994). This position is gained through the vast economies of scale that are generated by the clusters of economic activity located throughout the vast city-region, with the financial clusters in the city of London and London dockland clusters being notable examples (Storper, 1997). London, as with the other major metropolitan clusters, is witnessing the spectacular growth of industrial districts that are geared to the new and specialized facets of cognitive-cultural production (Arai et al, 2004). Along with its world leading financial sector, London has seen the growth of clusters in industries highlighted in table 1, and has plans to develop creative clusters in no less than nine areas of London (Creativeclusters, 2014). Clusters of economic activity are so important to the creative economy that this research will inevitably be affected by, and have implications for, geographical research on clusters. Particularly likely, is that this will be through the enhanced understanding of networks that this research will provide, which are integral to an understanding of how clusters function. Networks are also important in the creative economy regardless of how clustered it is and will be elaborated further later in this chapter. Along with the growth of these clusters come the changes in the urban fabric. New and iconic creative landmarks are being constructed throughout the world as part of aestheticized land use intensification, such as the Trump Towers in Chicago and more specifically the Gherkin and Shard buildings in London (Scott, 2011). Rapid gentrification in the old inner-city and removal of brownfield and old industrial areas is prevalent, too, and the London docklands is one of the most prominent examples globally (Smith, 2002).

Socially, this phase of capitalism is removing the traditional white and blue collar social structure and replacing it with new groups of workers like technocrats (Gouldner, 1979), symbolic workers (Reich, 1992) and most recently creative workers (Florida, 2002). However, it is also bringing about a negative change in the working conditions of certain industries to the extent that a new term has been introduced to cover those affected and that can be deemed part of the ‘new precariat’. The new precariat is a real yet thinly investigated concept, particularly in human geography, that is a European concept with roots in French social divisions (Bourdieu, 1963) and is mainly concerned with precariousness in the employment realm (Offredi, 1988), but is deemed important enough to constitute a precariousness of life and human condition by some (Barbier, 2002). Indeed, Waite

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(2009) believes its importance warrants a place within the literature for a critical geography of precarity. It has come to prominence recently due to the changing economic conditions of increased labour mobility and the intensification of neoliberalism and globalization (Dicken, 2003 and Urry, 2000), and many now believe that this precariat form of marginalized employment and insecure labour conditions has reached the point of forming a characteristic of post-Fordism (Peck and Tickell, 1994 and Smith et al, 2008). The term new precariat is used now to distinguish it from the original precariat that emerged in certain sectors during the 1970s in the global North, brought about by Fordism (Gertler, 1988). This time, those who are low paid migrant workers, undocumented or involved in casual employment are key stakeholders in the precariat, but more specifically to this research, those who are short-term, freelance, and creative are also deemed integral parts of the precariat (Neilson and Rossiter, 2005).

It can clearly be seen that cognitive-cultural capitalism and the creative economy have immense importance in current times, particularly in London, and are driving societal change for both good and bad, thus continued research is needed in order to enhance our understanding of topics as important as this. Before outlining how this research intends to that, an understanding of some of the most important texts within the entire creative economy literature is needed.

Richard Caves (2000), for example, has written using a heavily economic focus to understand and explain how the creative industries work. His analysis is comprehensive and seeks to explain the historical emergence of these industries as well as the current organizational logics, with which section 2.3 is focused on. He believes that the arts are incorrectly viewed as unimportant and wrote this book in order to clarify their importance, adding further relevance for studies in this area in the process. But it is Florida’s (2002) seminal work ‘The Rise of the Creative Class’ that is the most notable recent text. While Caves looks primarily at the economic side of the creative industries, Florida (2002) lends a much stronger focus to the social and spatial aspects of the creative economy, particularly talking about the emergence of a creative class which contributed significantly to the debate on creative workers with which the craft worker descends from. The life and work styles of the creative class are analyzed in great depth, as well as the implications of having them in abundance as well (Glaeser, 2004). Further, Florida creates a ‘Creativity Index’ which measures sustained economic growth in each region of the US, giving an idea of where the growth poles of the creative industry are (Florida and Tinagali, 2004). Florida brings aspects such as Bohemian lifestyles (Brooks, 2001) and creative capital together, arguing that for cities to prosper in the current times they need to place an emphasis on attracting creative talent and forming a creative class.

2.2 Understanding the creative worker

Perhaps the most significant contribution of Florida’s (2002) book was the introduction of the concept of the creative class and the popularization of the creative worker. As the following sections will demonstrate, the creative worker itself embodies a vast amount of literature that warrants investigation and further research. The creative class and the creative worker will be discussed initially, before Banks’ (2010) craft worker is introduced and discussed in relation to other types of creative worker and its importance outlined.

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2.2.1 The creative class

Despite limited previous research into creative workers, Florida was not the first to write about creative workers and their lifestyles. He was, however, the first to bring the whole picture together and provide a cohesive claim for an entirely new and expanding social demographic (Glaeser, 2004). Florida (2002) proposed the emergence of this demographic, consisting of scientists, media workers, artists, knowledge workers and intellectuals, to name but a few, claiming it accounted for 30% of the entire US workforce and would grow to 40% the following decade. In response to this new demographic, firms and even entire cities must orient themselves to attracting creative workers in an attempt to stay competitive in this cognitive-cultural capitalism, by providing the working culture and amenities that creative types enjoy.

However, when introducing new concepts on a scale as vast as this, there will inevitably be critiques, too many even to discuss in their entirety here. Instead, the focus will be on the critiques revolving around the definition of the creative class. Firstly, even with a division into two groups: the super-creative core and the super-creative professionals, there is not nearly enough understanding of the different types of creative worker, which is something that can be directly improved by this research. Secondly, there has been widespread criticism of the lack of analytical precision when coining the creative class (Evans, 2009) and Markusen (2006) notes that many workers located in the creative class are in occupations that are not necessarily creative. Her primary argument is that the creative class is too reliant on levels of education rather than creativity, and has resulted in occupations such as claim adjusters and tax collectors being labelled as creative. It would seem that despite the label ‘creative’, the creative class is not always creative but rather educated and skilled. Indeed, financial and real estate professionals, as well as the political class are included, yet are debatably creative to say the least (Kratke, 2011). Ultimately, if you are trying to understand or define those involved in the production of the creative economy, ‘creative class’ cannot be regarded as an ideal concept and a more accurate term, or set of terms, is required.

2.2.2 The creative worker

In the pursuit of understanding the workers enrolled within the creative economy, it is the ‘creative worker’ that needs to be assessed after the creative class. This is a slightly more specific umbrella term that defines workers as creative if they work for a firm which produces a creative output (Bilton, 2010). However, it also suffers from limitations, one of which is same as with the creative class, that a security guard working for a graphic design company would be classed as a creative worker when they are not actually creative (DCMS, 2009a). Further difficulty is garnered from the diversity of the workers classed as creative, with some identifying as artists, scientists and craft workers (DCMS, 2009b). This means that the only way of defining creative workers currently is through a set of generalizations and characteristics, similar to Florida’s (2002) creative class, that create a net which catches those who work in the creative industries. If the lack of specificity was not a big enough problem, a further one is that even with these generalizations there are conflicting themes. For instance, some have called creative workers highly skilled, competitive and independent (Oakley, 2006), which would suggest their importance, but others have shown the average creative worker to earn below the average national income level and have a higher chance of working part-time (Futureskills Scotland, 2007), which suggests that they are replaceable.

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2.2.3 Types of creative worker

Given that the creative worker is still such a broad concept, attempts have been made to respecify what the creative worker is and research has begun to pay attention to what specifically makes an artistic worker, as well as self-employed, freelance and creative entrepreneurial workers, amongst others (Henry, 2007; Menger, 2006; Towse, 1992). The artistic worker is the most prominent group of creative workers as they are regarded as key actors in the process of cultural production and it is thought they must be understood in order for the wider role of the creative economy in society to be understood (Throsby, 2001). Throsby (2001) believes that there are both creative and non-creative artistic workers, with the core non-creative group being actors, musicians, dancers, painters, writers and sculptors, amongst others. However, he believes that those workers whose input is necessary to production processes in the arts, such as art gallery guides, technical staff working for opera and theatre firms, and even cleaners and accountants, can be considered non-creative artistic workers.

Recently, another body of literature on creative workers has spawned that has produced the craft worker, which Banks (2010) argues is clearly undervalued. Banks (2010, p. 305) has provided the best and only definition of what craft labour is by stating that ‘it is not just in referral to the traditional specific crafts (such as woodworking and embroidery), but that it is a specific input of the industrial labour process combined with the attitude that configures that labour’. Popularist appraisals of the creative industries overlook the fact that while there are the key creative artistic roles, they depend on a wide range of supportive roles which are non-artistic and based on craft skills and processes, without which the artists vision could not come to fruition. This fits broadly with Throsby’s (2001) idea of non-creative artistic workers which are required but lack a creative input. It is clear from the frequency with which the creative and artistic values of these workers has been mentioned that it is a contentious area and one that needs to be incorporated into this research. As the next section shows, Banks (2010) goes on to talk about the delicate situation that craft labour finds itself in and offers explanations as to why there is a lack of research on the matter, something that is important to note. However, before discussing craft workers further, it is important to understand that creative workers can also be categorized in terms of their work status, particularly the difference between being a freelance worker and working full-time for a firm is important for this research.

Freelance workers are represented very strongly in the creative economy. In fact, creative workers are more than twice as likely to be self-employed than the average for the economy (Leadbeater and Oakley, 2001; Menger, 2006; Pratt, 2011). One reason for the prominence of creative freelance workers is that they see less of a division between personal and work lives, instead perceiving culture as a constant creative stimulation (Lange et al, 2008). This large contingent of freelance workers is unsurprising considering the greatly unstructured nature of creative work, leading to the prominence of ad-hoc, part-time and flexible work (Holden, 2007). It is perhaps this ephemeral nature of much of the work that enables creative workers to re-brand themselves and makes them very hard to identify. The previous paragraphs demonstrate that while it is important to understand the types of creative workers, it also needs to be understood that there is a further variety in the work status of these different types of creative worker.

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2.2.4 The future of craft workers

Despite the recent introduction of the craft worker, it is immediately under threat. This new cognitive-cultural capitalism has numerous properties that endanger the craft worker and raise the possibility that it may be unable to survive. Particularly of note is the de-skilling thesis which suggests that technical innovation has meant that the digital workstation is replacing the workshop, leading to a process of combining craft skills together and thus eliminating their individual specialities and thus threatening the capacity of the craft worker industry (Christopherson, 2008 and Roberts, 2007). This was confirmed by Christopherson (2008) in the media industry, who also found that employer pressures to reduce costs has led to the use of non-unionized labour and the process of decollectivization of representation is occurring as craft workers are realizing the imminent threats to their survivability that cannot be combated with collective representation. The few remaining unions and guilds are now focusing their attentions on retaining just a few of the good jobs left for their workers, while the lower-end jobs are left to the competition amongst the new multi-skilled, hybrid workforce (Christopherson, 2008). Instead, the personal network is becoming vital in securing jobs, career advancement, and decreasing risks (Grabher and Ibert, 2002).

This has all led to craft workers’ jobs becoming increasingly under threat and furthers the inclinations that they may now considered part of the new precariat. Hesmondhalgh and Baker (2010) found that creative workers, with a focus on the non-artistic workers, across three industries displayed feelings of victimization and anxiety in their workplace and that the pleasure in their job was mixed with a high degree of obligation. They described the creative workers’ experience as highly ambivalent at best and linked this to their high supply and low demand as well as their inferior position relative to artistic workers. Technological advances, as seen in the de-skilling theses, and firms’ cost-efficiency are hurting craft workers’ job stability, but also capitalist society’s demand for speed and mass produced goods, which is at odds with craft workers’ desire for a degree of freedom and to ensure their work is of the highest standard (Banks, 2007).

However, despite the desire of capitalism to remove craft workers and replace them with a cheaper and more efficient alternative, the paradox exists that they are a necessity for this cultural- cognitive capitalism. While they are not deemed quite as necessary as artistic labour because they use learned general skills rather than a natural creative ability that has been honed, craft workers are required for the artists to produce capitalism’s only source of original commodities, and thus enable the continuation of product cycles and profits. Consequently, it is worth investigating craft labour further due to their longstanding importance within the creative process. The change in focus towards craft labour is not just theoretical. As section 1.2 shows, there is a visible growth in creative industry, growing at twice the rate of the UK economy in the decade leading up to 2008 and it has become a government aim for the creative industries to become a focus of mainstream economic and policy thinking (DCMS, 2008). Further, and particularly relevant for craft labour, is that craft skills and employability is a primary focus of economic policy now, it is no longer just about training artists (DCMS, 2008). However, the lack of research on craft workers implies that their importance is still underestimated.

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2.3 The organization of creative production

Banks (2010) has made an attempt to define craft workers, however, a lack of empirical evidence and alternative definitions, combined with an implicit vagueness within the definition, means that it is far from a concrete definition and further clarification is needed. One way to improve the understanding of craft workers and how their relationship with artistic workers functions is by properly understanding why they work together. This will also integrate the craft worker literature further into some of the core economic geography literatures, as the organization of craft workers has implications for how networks are embedded within clusters and the creative industries. The following sections will outline the organizational networks typically present in this type of relationship in the hope that this can improve our understanding of craft workers.

2.3.1 The network organization

Within the creative industries since the 1980s, it has been noted that there has been a marked shift in the structure of organizations from the hierarchical and market organizations to the network organization (Starkey et al, 2000), which is defined as a network form of organization of any number of actors greater than two, that have repeated and enduring relations but lack an organizational authority to resolve disputes that arise during these relations (Podolny and Page, 1998). The rise of network organizations has been caused by an increasingly uncertain economy where the inherent cost-cutting of capitalism has placed constant pressure on organizations, making them shift towards a more flexible form of network in a bid to release cost pressures (Morgan, 1989). Some have highlighted the emergence of the network organization as due to recent technological advances on the grounds that amongst other synonymous names such as the industrial (Huber, 1984), post-bureaucratic (Heydebrand, 1989), or virtual organization (Markus et al, 2000), the importance of technological advances in their emergence is constant.

Hierarchical organizations have high and unavoidable staffing costs while market organizations have an inherent high risk when it comes to ensuring quality, and both ignore the importance of reciprocity and collaboration in economic exchanges (DeSanctis and Poole, 1997). Network organizations, while guilty of not having some of the advantages of hierarchies or markets such as organizational capabilities and the ability to efficiently reduce costs, respectively, have many other benefits (Starkey et al, 2000). One key function is the ability to promote learning within the network through two methods. Firstly, network ties act as conduits which allow the rapid transfer of information, and secondly, by encouraging new combinations that yield novel syntheses of information and can thus even be deemed as a locus of innovation (Powell and Brantley, 1992). Networks can also be used to gain legitimation and status. If an actor combines with another which has a superior legitimacy or status, then they can subsequently derive their own legitimacy or status from them, which in turn will have a wide range of economic benefits (Podolny, 1993). Dependency scholars believe that networks are beneficial because they allow organizations to alleviate constraints that are placed upon them by external sources through developing relationships with those same sources (Pfeffer and Nowak, 1976). There is even what Perrow (1993) calls social welfare benefits to be gained. He believes that in comparison to large bureaucratic firms, networks of small firms enable the provision of greater autonomy to their workers and lead to reduced inequality in terms of wealth and responsibility. Finally, there are also distinct economic benefits to be derived;

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Jack Harris 18 mainly the reduction of transaction costs (Williamson, 1991). However, this is an issue of contestation between economists and sociologists. While economists argue that the benefit of reduced transaction costs rests in the direct financial gains, sociologists argue against this and believe that quality advantages such as trust are a greater benefit than the contractual provisions, although they are not mutually exclusive (Dore, 1983). They also argue that because of the enhanced communication in these networks, it makes adaptation to unanticipated environmental changes much easier (Kanter, 1991). Regardless of perspective, the network provides a vital tool for communication which those within it can abuse to gain an upper hand (Sorenson, 1997).

The strong growth of network organizations has not been ubiquitous across all industries but the creative industries have been found to be dominated by their presence (Faulkner and Anderson, 1987). There are three dominant factors that have caused the proliferation of network organizations in the creative industries: the need for know-how, the demand for speed, and the necessity of trust (Powell, 1990). Craft and creative workers are very specialized workers that combine to create a very specialized final product, thus the ability of networks to bring the know-how of each of these workers together when its needed makes them well suited to the creative industries (Powell and Brantley, 1992). As has been illustrated, capitalism dictates that the products of these creative industries needs to come to fruition quickly, and networks offer industries the fast access to new information and creation of products they need, something that the market and hierarchy cannot offer (Brown and Duguid, 2001). Unlike the market which is driven by price and the hierarchy that is driven by routines, the network is driven by relations and implicit within them is the notion of trust, something that is very helpful when it comes to working together in these industries and is often seen as the driver of these networks (Adler, 2001).

2.3.2 The project-based organization

There is also further variety in the types of network organization. While firms within the biotechnology sector are frequent users of alliance networks (Stuart et al, 1997), and those in the financial sector such as investment banks are often involved with syndicate groups (Eccles and Crane, 1987), creative industries are frequently driven by temporary and project based organizational modalities (Sedita, 2008). The project-based organization (PBO) has its roots in the theory of temporary organization, which is thought of as the ideal way to combine those with diverse skills and generate learning processes through collective practice (Lundin and Soderholm, 1995). However, temporary organizations often function as a segment of a permanent organization where specific workers have job overlaps which create a multiple level organizational structure. Consequently, PBOs were introduced to account for temporary systems that are inter-organizational in their nature and also incorporate network features (Lorenzen and Frederiksen, 2005). The PBO allows the creation and recreation of organizational structures which can match the demands of each individual project and customer. By creating the most suitable organizational structure for each project, it enables the ability to flexibly accommodate customer needs and respond to project risks, as well as integrate workers with different skills and knowledge (Hobday, 2000). However, the PBO has its weaknesses and struggles to produce economies of scale, perform routine tasks, and it is weak at transferring its benefits on a company wide scale and is consequently not deemed efficient for large or vertically integrated firms (Hobday, 2000). Ultimately, the PBO is deemed the ideal organizational setting for the planning and execution of creative activities as so much of the work is

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short-term project based and incorporates a diverse array of often freelanced talent within a volatile and technology driven market (Grabher, 2002a).

2.3.3 The latent network

The nature of the PBOs in the creative industries, or their ecology, is filled with interrelations between projects, workers and organizations, and is enabled through a latent network (Grabher, 2002b). This is the coming together of a collection of individual latent ties through groupings of individuals and teams that periodically work together, creating a management structure filled with the interrelations of those involved (Belussi and Sedita, 2008). Latent networks are distinct from other forms of networks due to the enduring nature of their relationships over time and were first identified by Miles and Snow (1986) who found them in a number of contexts, but most notably the creative industries. Starkey et al (2000) argue that industries which have a focus on intermittent projects, as are many of those in the creative industries, are most productive if using latent networks to maintain their relationships between projects, and Lanzara (1999) believes one reason for this is that it reduces the need to create a new order in every project. The strength of the latent network can be enhanced once again by proximity, as this enforces a sense of community and embeddedness (Neff, 2005).

The long-term stability of latent networks is optimal here because of the highly uncertain and risky environment that many of the creative industries operate in. A case study of the British TV industry demonstrates that latent networks are dominant due to the actors being aware of each other’s qualities and being able to trust one another despite not working consistently together (Starkey et al, 2000). Three reasons are also presented as to why the trend of latent networks in the creative industries is likely to proliferate. Firstly, as commercialization continues to be such a significant part of these industries, costly risks will be less desirable and the need for stable production through a latent network is required. Secondly, recapitalizing on past successes is a logical step for all parties involved, especially as many of these workers are considered to be in the new precariat and it would be wise for them to take the safe and secure option to future work. Similarly, these workers who have seen the vertically integrated company almost disappear need a psychological home and sense of community in such a tough working environment, the latent networks they operate in can provide this. Parallels can be drawn here with craft labour and it is surprising that research is yet to integrate the two.

Creating the craft worker : verifying and enhancing the current understanding of craft workers.