Is creative work sustainable? Understanding identity, motivation, and worth

The purpose of this article is to explore the “value” of creative workers’ work from their perspective. The work of this group is often ephemeral and intangible, contributes to the development of society, and is often very poorly remunerated. Qualitative responses from a large survey of creative wor...

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Main Authors: Reid, A., Petocz, P., Bennett, Dawn
Format: Journal Article
Published: Sage Publications 2016
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/41610
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author Reid, A.
Petocz, P.
Bennett, Dawn
author_facet Reid, A.
Petocz, P.
Bennett, Dawn
author_sort Reid, A.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The purpose of this article is to explore the “value” of creative workers’ work from their perspective. The work of this group is often ephemeral and intangible, contributes to the development of society, and is often very poorly remunerated. Qualitative responses from a large survey of creative workers’ work experience and attitudes have provided the material analyzed for this paper. The data were analyzed using a naturalistic coding process leading to the emergence of themes describing the data. Five “elements of worth” emerged which included identity representation, motivation, catalysts of creativity, interactions with society, and recognition. Knowing how creative workers experience these five elements provides educators and local/national policy makers data on which to base their pedagogical and financial judgments. To date, there has been no other study that examines how creative workers perceive the value of their work and how that notion of value is derived from their lived experience.
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publishDate 2016
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-416102017-09-13T14:17:44Z Is creative work sustainable? Understanding identity, motivation, and worth Reid, A. Petocz, P. Bennett, Dawn The purpose of this article is to explore the “value” of creative workers’ work from their perspective. The work of this group is often ephemeral and intangible, contributes to the development of society, and is often very poorly remunerated. Qualitative responses from a large survey of creative workers’ work experience and attitudes have provided the material analyzed for this paper. The data were analyzed using a naturalistic coding process leading to the emergence of themes describing the data. Five “elements of worth” emerged which included identity representation, motivation, catalysts of creativity, interactions with society, and recognition. Knowing how creative workers experience these five elements provides educators and local/national policy makers data on which to base their pedagogical and financial judgments. To date, there has been no other study that examines how creative workers perceive the value of their work and how that notion of value is derived from their lived experience. 2016 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/41610 10.1177/1038416216637089 Sage Publications fulltext
spellingShingle Reid, A.
Petocz, P.
Bennett, Dawn
Is creative work sustainable? Understanding identity, motivation, and worth
title Is creative work sustainable? Understanding identity, motivation, and worth
title_full Is creative work sustainable? Understanding identity, motivation, and worth
title_fullStr Is creative work sustainable? Understanding identity, motivation, and worth
title_full_unstemmed Is creative work sustainable? Understanding identity, motivation, and worth
title_short Is creative work sustainable? Understanding identity, motivation, and worth
title_sort is creative work sustainable? understanding identity, motivation, and worth
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/41610