Session 17 - Labours of Love, Works of Passion: The social (re)production of art workers from industrialisation to globalisation

Research output: Contribution to conferenceOtherpeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

A term that emerged in feminist thinking in the 1970s, ‘social reproduction’ refers to the ‘labour of love’ traditionally performed for free by women in the home. Despite the crucial role it plays in sustaining and replenishing the working population, this work is usually excluded from accounts of ‘production proper’ and the economy at large. In viewing its worth as other than economic, this labour of love connects with accounts of artistic labour which is also seen as simply ‘self-rewarding’.

Arguably, the values associated with a gendered sphere during the rise of modern art and 19th-century industrialisation have transferred to artistic production within the 21st century finance- and service-led economy. Is art, then, the exemplary case study in the socio-economic order of feminised labour widely encountered in globalisation? How might we connect this to the thesis that artistic critique led to precarious labour (The New Spirit of Capitalism, Boltanski and Chiapello 2005 [1999])? And, do the above compel a rethinking into what connects modern and contemporary art? - See more at: http://www.aah.org.uk/annual-conference/sessions2016/session17#sthash.FGE2EBem.dpuf
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2016
EventAAH annual conference - University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Duration: 6 Apr 20168 Apr 2016

Conference

ConferenceAAH annual conference
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityEdinburgh
Period6/04/168/04/16

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