Creative turn in contemporary work: a critical analysis from Santiago de Chile cultural labor working conditions

Abstract

This article explores the foundations of the creative turn in contemporary work, analysing the reasons that have made cultural producers - workers in the art world, the creative sectors and the intellectual field - gain position as model for other productive sectors, within the framework of flexible capitalism transformations. As a counterpart to these celebratory discourses, and based on a qualitative methodological strategy that allowed us to register the practices and discourses of the creative milieu of Santiago de Chile, we will delve into the reverse side of the artistic lifestyle: the precarious working conditions and the invisible subjective costs faced by those who work in these scenes. Based on this empirical survey, this text seeks to contribute to the understanding of the processes of construction of subjectivity in late capitalism. It examines the singularities of a type of activity that contains a paradox: while it becomes a labor model to export to other domains, its productive conditions – its valuation as work – is unknown in various senses and levels.