Culture, labour and subjectivity: For a political economy from below

Abstract

The central theme of this article is the relationship between political economy and culture. This raises related questions of the place and valuation of subjectivity, and of immaterial cultural labour within the cultural economy. These relationships and questions have been articulated in a relatively narrow way, if at all, by contemporary debates, which have not sufficiently taken into account recent social and cultural transformations. So this article attempts to discuss how a political economy of culture might develop a broader approach towards labour, culture, and subjectivity. The objective is to identify some of the problematic, under-researched and under-illuminated issues and areas. It culminates in the speculative discussion of a ‘political economy from below’, inherently geared to understanding the micro-productive activities of cultural producers themselves.