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Abstract

This article focuses on the relation between work and pleasure in the cultural sector. I first unpack the concept of passionate work, situating it within four possible ways of relating work and pleasure. I argue that the work ethic of do what you love, contrary to what it promises, limits the prospects of loveable work. As part of a neoliberal work culture, do what you love transfers the battleground from society onto the self. It favours self-management over politics. Drawing on findings from interview research with members of worker co-operatives in the UK cultural industries, I then go on to explore the relation between work and pleasure within cultural co-ops. I discuss how cultural co-ops might inspire and contribute to a movement for transforming the future of work by turning the desire for loveable work from a matter of individual transformation and competition into a practice of co-operation and social change.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Sandoval, M., From passionate labour to compassionate work: Cultural co-ops, do what you love and social change, European Journal of Cultural Studies. Copyright © 2017 Marisol Sandoval. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications
Publisher Keywords:	Co-operatives, cultural work, do what you love, neoliberalism, precarity, resistance
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Departments:	School of Policy & Global Affairs > Sociology & Criminology
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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