Work, Rest, and Play

Work in the “cultural economy” is increasingly defined by blurred boundaries between labour and leisure. This edited volume reveals how those in the arts, sports, and entertainment industries actually work – and struggle – behind the spectacle.

Drawing on original empirical research across arts, sports, and entertainment, this edited collection examines labour processes, employment relations, and worker experiences in the rapidly expanding “experience economy”. Featuring chapters with a diverse range of methodologies and data, the contributions span sectors from Hollywood production and independent performing arts to immersive entertainment, music, and sport. The chapters make visible precarious careers shaped by gig work and hybrid employment; the emotional and performative demands placed on workers; and widening inequalities in pay, security, and recognition. The volume also interrogates pressures on the value of creative work, such as artificial intelligence (AI), marketization, corporate control and climate change. It also highlights emerging forms of resistance, solidarity and alternative modes of organizing. By centring both front-stage and often invisible backstage labour, the collection advances sociological debates relating to labour process theory, cultural work, and employment relations.

Offering a critical perspective on artistic and athletic labour today, this book equips readers to rethink value, power, and rights in cultural industries. It is appealing reading for scholars and students in sociology of work, industrial relations, cultural studies, technology studies, media and communications, sports and labour economics.