Self-entrepreneurship in uncertain futures: The case of performing artists in Italy

Abstract

This article contributes to contemporary debates on self-entrepreneurship in cultural work by focusing on project-based theatre actors in Italy. Drawing on in-depth interviews, the study considers performing artists’ narratives of success, unsuccess, and future expectations to shed light on how entrepreneurial projects are negotiated in neoliberal cultural work. The article expands current research by considering how self-entrepreneurial projects are lived out in insecure working environments, taking into account a geographical area and a creative sector often overlooked by studies of creative labour. In a context where precariousness is normalised, actors’ discourses point at the emergence of disaffection towards neoliberal entrepreneurial ideals of autonomy and competition and to the loss of a progressive idea of biographical projects. The research highlights that an ongoing status of insecurity can mine optimistic and entrepreneurial orientations, questioning the sustainability of neoliberal ethos of work as a future-oriented project in times of enhanced insecurity.