Abstract
In recent years, the UK government and policymakers have sought to maximise the impact of the creative economy via a programme of targeted intervention. Intermediary agencies − those organisations that sit between government and policymakers on one hand, and creative practitioners and microbusinesses on the other − are increasingly seen as crucial to the functioning of the creative economy. This article reports on the activities of one creative intermediary − Cultural Enterprise Office − based in Glasgow, Scotland. CEO’s remit is to help creatives become more ‘businesslike’, and they provide or facilitate access to training and skills development. The article draws on interviews conducted with CEO staff and clients, and ethnographic material gathered from observation of CEO’s working practices. I explore how creatives narrativise their personal and professional development in relation to intermediaries, and demonstrate the tension at the core of CEO’s practice − between their remit to support a skills and employability agenda and their understanding of the limitations of this agenda. I also explore the emotional component of business support, which arises in response to the extreme individualisation associated with creative work, and the precarious working conditions that creatives face. The rationale for writing this article stems from the fact that the creative economy is now a globalised concept, with many countries looking to the UK for guidance on growing the sector. Yet little is known about what services creatives draw down from intermediaries, why and when, or how they understand the role of intermediaries.
Highlights
In the UK, we are rapidly moving on from what McRobbie (2010:32) has called the ‘creative decade’ wherein creativity came to be understood as a key driver of the national economy
At a Marketing training event run by Cultural Enterprise Office (CEO) in summer 2014, I met a designer, who spoke of the difficulty of factoring in time in a precarious, portfolio career for training in soft skills: She told me that even though she knew her business would benefit from her improved marketing skills, she would have to work ‘overtime’ this weekend in order to justify taking the day off to work on her ‘soft skills’
In describing the activities of CEO − a small creative business support agency based in the Central Belt of Scotland − this article has done two things
Summary
In the UK, we are rapidly moving on from what McRobbie (2010:32) has called the ‘creative decade’ wherein creativity came to be understood as a key driver of the national economy. The UK government and policymakers have sought to maximise the impact of the creative economy via a programme of targeted intervention As it stands in the UK this ‘intervention’ consists in part of a draw-down programme of funding and support that will help creative practitioners develop a business from their talent. To this end, intermediary agencies − understood as those organisations that sit between government and policymakers on the one hand, and creative practitioners and microbusinesses on the other − have come to be seen as key to the functioning of the creative economy, working as they do to organise and govern creative production and to keep creative practitioners aligned with high-level cultural and creative-economic policy.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
