TY - JOUR
T1 - ‘The show must go on!’
T2 - Hustling through the compounded precarity of Covid-19 in the creative industries
AU - Langevang, Thilde
AU - Steedman, Robin
AU - Alacovska, Ana
AU - Resario, Rashida
AU - Kilu, Rufai H.
AU - Sanda, Mohammed Aminu
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors
PY - 2022/11
Y1 - 2022/11
N2 - The article offers a qualitative examination of compounded precarity in creative work during the Covid-19 pandemic. Drawing on repeated in-depth interviews with twelve creative workers operating in the creative industries in Ghana, we examine one of the most prevalent practices for navigating, coping with, and managing compounded precarity: that of hustling. We empirically identify and discuss three interrelated practices of hustling in creative work: digitalization, diversification, and social engagement. We present a new way of conceptualizing creative work in precarious geographies by theorizing hustling, and the associated worker resourcefulness, improvisation, savviness, hopefulness, and caring not merely as an individualized survival strategy, but rather as an agentic and ethical effort to turn the vicissitudes of life into situated advantages and opportunities, and even social change.
AB - The article offers a qualitative examination of compounded precarity in creative work during the Covid-19 pandemic. Drawing on repeated in-depth interviews with twelve creative workers operating in the creative industries in Ghana, we examine one of the most prevalent practices for navigating, coping with, and managing compounded precarity: that of hustling. We empirically identify and discuss three interrelated practices of hustling in creative work: digitalization, diversification, and social engagement. We present a new way of conceptualizing creative work in precarious geographies by theorizing hustling, and the associated worker resourcefulness, improvisation, savviness, hopefulness, and caring not merely as an individualized survival strategy, but rather as an agentic and ethical effort to turn the vicissitudes of life into situated advantages and opportunities, and even social change.
KW - Covid-19
KW - Creative industries
KW - Creative work
KW - Ghana
KW - Hustle
KW - Precarity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85139430191&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.geoforum.2022.09.015
DO - 10.1016/j.geoforum.2022.09.015
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85139430191
SN - 0016-7185
VL - 136
SP - 142
EP - 152
JO - Geoforum
JF - Geoforum
ER -