We are pleased to alert you to ISS working paper 670, entitled Passion, precarity and inequality? Working conditions of urban dancers in Colombia, by Angela María Sabogal Camargo, one of the ISS MA Research Paper Award winners for the academic year 2019-2020.
Abstract
Cultural and Creative Industries is a growing sector that has been characterised to offer precarious working conditions. Nevertheless, as cultural work operates under the complex dilemma of passion and precarity, there is no clear understanding of how social policy can effectively support the increasing number of workers to overcome these circumstances. Therefore, any social policy that aims to provide protection needs to question how labour precarity is interpreted and managed, and what are the specific demands of the workers.
By using a life history research and intersectional sensitivity, I analysed the working conditions of urban dancers in Bogotá from their subjective perspective. Seven participants of a different class, age, race, and gender were interviewed using online means, and a digital ethnography exploration of their social networks (Instagram, YouTube and Facebook) was conducted.
With this research, I will argue that it is necessary to problematize the negative connotation of labour precarity because dancers experience their work circumstances according to their positionalities and context. The interconnection of different identity markers influences their perception of precarity and the strategies they used to manage it. Moreover, this diversity of experiences has revealed an enrooted problem of cultural work inequality. Regarding their demands, social policy should acknowledge their double facet of artist and worker when listening to their need. This is a process that includes addressing issues both for redistribution and recognition.
Keywords
Urban dance, Colombia, cultural work, cultural and creative industries, precarity, cultural justice, life history, intersectionality
