Contemporary Identities of Creative Work

Question: Discuss about the Contemporary Identities of Creative Work. Answer: Introduction: M.Banks is a social theorist whose intention was to research and analyze on the policy of cultural work environment. M.Banks wrote his book with an intent of communicating to the masses the issues surrounding working conditions However, Banks seems to be biased in the expression of his views as he introduces the readers to economic, cultural and social challenges that affect workers in an original context. The author perceives social workers to include individuals participating in aesthetic goods and services production.. Social theorists argue that the politics of work should be flexible enough to accommodate artistic labor and address research gaps that undermine work efforts contributed by social workers that are often viewed as traditional work and never given much priority (Reckwitz, 2002).Nevertheless individuals interests in settling for traditional work has significantly increased over the years. The capacity of people settling for careers such as film production, broadcasting, and fashion have increased over the years. Banks argues that a rise in traditional bank enterprise is a revelation of knowledge gaps among individuals. He further states that discussions on traditional management activities have increased people blames on themselves. The significant milestone of the book relies on Banks ability to connect social theories with actual practical work examples. In his research, Banks uses a case of productive workers, perhaps to attract the attention of his readers towards applying his theories in their daily lives. Banks also does an analysis of how social workers behave under subordination and exploitation situations when they are in the line of duty (Thompson et al.2001). This can also be related to the tough situations that cultural workers undergo in the contemporary economy. In most cases, cultural workers have usually been assumed to be less educated and knowledgeable people (Thompson et al. 2001). They rarely have people to help them fight for their work environment rights. They are sometimes taken advantage of when an employer expects them to do a hill of work with less pay. Some companies exploit cultural workers by not paying wages of work done by employees. The chapters in the book are theoretically more considerable as they require readers prior understanding so as to relate Banks political work philosophical views. Banks book would be more beneficial and influential if it would have covered diverse industries. Covering various industries in his book would have benefitted many people in the working environment on important work concepts (Konrad et al. 2005).The author of the book fails to provide an analysis on some of the industries that he captures on the book thus making the book less beneficial to reader and workers. Instead of grasping lessons from the book, any reader who reads the book is likely to be left in suspense as they will be required to use their creativity to develop the meanings of ideas being shared in the book. This implies that readers who lack prior knowledge of social theories, industries, and cultural studies may be left with several questions on their mind on the validity of the author ideologies. Others may al so be left with a limited understanding of Banks political work ideology. Interrelated ideological ideas rules that the book must be taken as part of the pack as every section within the various chapters relate to each other thus a reader may not befit from the book by reading different sections (Taylor and Littleton, 2012).The user is thus forced to read all chapters so as to grasp an understanding of the author's politics of culture and work. The fourth chapter of this book depicts the challenges individuals undergo at the workplace. The chapter talks about capitalism and on how employers (directors and managers) limit the freedom of employees. This is because, in a capitalized work environment, the employer often makes every effort to dominate workers freedom. In his research, Banks also discusses on a gendered mentality on governance and work nature. Banks in this chapter explains that female employees in a work environment are often more disadvantaged as compared to their male counterparts (Banks, 2007). Development of gender concept within a cultural work environment is likely to help raise concerns on the disadvantages that female workers undergo at the workplace. This may lead to development of mechanisms that would help communities embrace feminism and create female-friendly environments (Lewis Gilman, 2012). The fifth chapter is about strategies of overcoming pessimistic capitalism view of the industry about art commerce. On the other hand, chapter six of the book discusses on how the practical artistic work promoted the ethical developments of cultural production spatial characters. Ethics, in chapter six, is also used to reveal on the importance of a new perspective noncapitalist work environment. The new view is supported by qualitative evidence that brings out an unusual approach towards the morals, commitments, and principles linked to cultural workers. Banks gives a description on dealing with general cultural work assumptions; he uses a convincing tone in discussing these assumptions. Despite addressing unsupported contemporary beliefs about industries, the book's author tends to develop a non-discriminative theory argument but rather focuses more on the pessimistic insights of the estranged workers who frequently become victims of capitalism, enterprise, and management. This is b ecause good cultural productions are usually rutted against the exploitive and disempowering efforts of the capitalists regarding cultural production (Bourdieu, 1993). Developing an individualized and autonomous cultural working environment, therefore, requires motivation and employees rights to freedom .Employees at the workplace will only be motivated if they are protected against capitalist employers who take advantage of their liberty and labor (Banks, 2007). In the contemporary society, employees can be motivated to the formation of labor unions that will enable employees to report their challenges to appropriate officers. Another way of motivating an employee is through creation and implementation of policies to guide and direct people (Ehrenberg Smith, 2016). Policies will also promote capitalism moral values adaptation thus impacting on creative opportunities that are likely to mitigate the existing capitalist system. References Banks, M. (2007). The politics of cultural work. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Bourdieu, P. (1993). The Field of cultural production: essays on art and literature. Cambridge: Columbia University Press. Ehrenberg, R. G., Smith, R. S. (2016). Modern labor economics: Theory and public policy. Routledge Geertz, C. (2016). The interpretation of cultures: selected essays. New York: Basic Books Konrad, A. M., Prasad, P., Pringle, J. (Eds.). (2005). Handbook of workplace diversity. Sage. Lewis, C. W., Gilman, S. (2012). The ethics challenge in public service: a problem-solving guide. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Reckwitz, A. (2002). Toward a theory of social practices: A development in culturalism theorizing. European journal of social theory, 5(2), 243-263. Taylor, S., Taylor, S., Littleton, K. (2012). Contemporary identities of creativity and creative work. Farnham: Ashgate Thompson, P., Warhurst, C., Callaghan, G. (2001). Ignorant theory and knowledgeable workers: Interrogating the connections between knowledge, skills, and services. Journal of Management Studies, 38(7), 923-942.a