"Essential – Passion for Music": Affirming, Critiquing and Practicing Passionate Work in Creative Industries

Toby Bennett

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Published conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

This chapter considers “passion” as an enthusiastic orientation to work within creative worlds: work motivated by intense attachments to the products of work and their conditions of production. Drawing on Luc Boltanski’s pragmatic sociology of critique and justification, the chapter argues that the passionate lens most usefully trains our sights on normative questions: not what or how – but why such work is undertaken. Embedded in research on cultural and creative industries, the contemporary recorded music sector is presented as a “passionate” industry in transformation. Interviews with workers, who both criticize and defend their industry, act as a springboard to explore three possible interpretive approaches: affirmative, critical and pragmatic. Theoretical flexibility is needed to keep “passion” open to future inquiry – particularly regarding inequalities in creative work.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationPalgrave Handbook of Creativity at Work
EditorsLee Martin, Nick Wilson
Place of PublicationLondon
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan Ltd.
Chapter21
Pages431-459
Number of pages29
ISBN (Electronic)978-3-319-77350-6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 18 Jul 2018

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