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Papers by Mark Banks

Journal of Cultural Analysis and Social Change

Review of the book "Fashion as Creative Economy" by Angela McRobbie, Daniel Strutt and ... more Review of the book "Fashion as Creative Economy" by Angela McRobbie, Daniel Strutt and Carolina Bandinelli.

Journal of Cultural Economy

Ideas of contributive justice are concerned with what people give or contribute to society, rathe... more Ideas of contributive justice are concerned with what people give or contribute to society, rather than what they get, as in ideas of distributive justice. This article deals with contributive justice as applied to a specific example of cultural workwork and employment in the UK publicly-funded arts, cultural and creative industries. It is offered mainly as a conceptual discussion rather than a set of concrete policy recommendations. However, given some of the limitations of current distributive models, a principle of universal distribution is postulated, supported by contributive justice as a complementary framework for conceiving and implementing programmes of equal opportunity and 'creative justice' in publicly funded cultural work.

Cultural Industries and the Environmental Crisis, 2020

At the time of writing this chapter—the early months of 2014—sections of the British media, parti... more At the time of writing this chapter—the early months of 2014—sections of the British media, particularly the broadsheet press, became concerned about the disappearance of a particular species. Not in the natural world this time, but in the cultural one. The working class artist (for which read singer, musician, actor, fashion designers, and so on) was said to have disappeared, replaced by a tide of privately educated (or in Britain, “public school educated”) youngsters, from actors such as Benedict Cumberbatch and Damien Lewis to pop stars such as Coldplay’s Chris Martin or Florence Welch, and even stand-up comedians

Culture Unbound, 2020

Although precarity has always been a characteristic feature of artistic labour, many critics now ... more Although precarity has always been a characteristic feature of artistic labour, many critics now claim it is becoming more widespread and engrained. However, while the idea of precarity offers a good descriptor of the conditions of artistic labour, it also has its limits. Firstly, it tends to gloss over social differences in the distribution of precariousness. And secondly, precarity tends to imply a universal condition of ‘temporal poverty’ where all social experience appears dominated by the frenetic demands of a speeded-up, unstable and fragmented social world. In this article, we show how these two omissions are interlinked and prevent a more nuanced understanding of time in artistic labour. Drawing from findings from empirical research with working visual artists in the Midlands of the UK, we propose three schematic ways of thinking about the organisation of time and temporality in routine artistic practice. We name these three temporal contexts ‘the artistic career’; ‘the time...

European Journal of Cultural Studies, 2020

This article offers some initial commentary on the cultural impacts of COVID-19. It first conside... more This article offers some initial commentary on the cultural impacts of COVID-19. It first considers how the pandemic might already have shifted the focus - or challenged our capacities - for cultural studies scholarship. However, the article is more centrally concerned with how measures designed to combat COVID-19 have begun to transform patterns of cultural consumption, production and work. The article considers the current status of cultural workers, in the midst of (yet further) crisis, and poses questions of what might culture be or become, in and beyond the current state of emergency.

Sociological Research Online, 2019

This article explores the temporality of work and employment in the cultural, creative, and media... more This article explores the temporality of work and employment in the cultural, creative, and media industries (‘cultural work’). Building on recent sociological writing on ‘event-time’, I explore the ways in which owner-managers of small creative firms navigate the contingent workplace in a world of allegedly advanced ‘precarity’, yet seek also to maintain their own stable anchorage to a linear ‘biographical’ time marked by continuity and a control of material privilege. It is argued that understanding the political economy of time in cultural work requires theorization of temporal continuity as well as change, not only to avoid making undue epochal judgements but also to ensure continued recognition of social differences in the ways time is being encountered and experienced at work.

International Journal of Cultural Policy, 2015

Gender, Work & Organization, 2010

In the ‘new’ economy the virtues of creative and cultural industry production are widely promoted... more In the ‘new’ economy the virtues of creative and cultural industry production are widely promoted and idealized. For women, set free from their ‘feudal chains’, the ‘cool creative and egalitarian’ cultural economy — particularly in areas such new media, music, design and fashion — appears to offer paths to workplace freedom. But is this really so? Using evidence from the digital ‘new media’ sector, this article builds on the work of Lash and Adkins that suggests that the ostensibly detraditionalized cultural economy continues to play host to some markedly regressive traditional social structures. In particular it is shown how the new media sector exhibits some clear continuity with the old economy in terms of some enduring gender inequality and discrimination. However, more positively, evidence is presented of how women have been able to take advantage of individualized workplace structures and develop more autonomous and reflexive workplace roles.

Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 2009

The utopianization of ‘creative work’ is a pronounced feature of postindustrial societies. The au... more The utopianization of ‘creative work’ is a pronounced feature of postindustrial societies. The author analyzes the attendant promotion of ‘creative leisure’, and its role in supporting discourses and practices of creative work. Through an analysis of Richard Florida's influential text The Rise of the Creative Class, it is argued that, while creative leisure is offered up as a means of free and autonomous expression, it may be leading, paradoxically, to the erosion of freedom as the terrain of critical and disinterested leisure is pervasively colonized by discourses of economic rationality. Secondly, it is contended that whereas, traditionally, capital has always sought to regulate and administer leisure ‘from above’—with workers variably ‘resisting’ below—such a model may no longer apply since (according to Florida) creative-class subjects now appear to be actively choosing to perform (rather than being coerced into) economically directed leisure.

Cultural Industries and the Environmental Crisis, 2021

The utopianization of creative work is a pronounced feature of post-industrial societies. This pa... more The utopianization of creative work is a pronounced feature of post-industrial societies. This paper analyses the attendant promotion of creative leisure, and its role in supporting discourses and practices of creative work. By analysing the example of Richard Florida\u27s popular text The Rise of the Creative Class(2002) it argues that while creative leisure is offered up as a model means for free and autonomous expression, it may be leading, paradoxically, to the erosion of freedom as the terrain of critical and disinterested leisure is pervasively colonized by discourses of economic rationality. Secondly, it is contended that while, traditionally, capital has always sought to regulate and administer leisure \u27from above\u27 ? with workers variably \u27resisting\u27 below - such a model may no longer apply since (according to Florida) creative class subjects now appear to be actively choosing to perform (rather than being coerced into) economically-directed leisure

Artmoney is a community currency based on the production and exchange of original art. Critical o... more Artmoney is a community currency based on the production and exchange of original art. Critical of the cold and objective nature of conventional transactions, the Danish artist Lars Kraemmer birst devised artmoney as a means to a more humanised and expressive type of monetary exchange, intending to bring people together in affective, rather than impersonal, forms of trade. Artmoney provides a means of stimulating trade amongst artists and non-artists outside of the conventional money economy, and has grown steadily to become a global currency traded in over 70 countries. Drawing from ongoing research, this article asks, what is the meaning and value of art-money in a global cultural economy? What alternative does it present and what economic futures (or pasts) does it anticipate? Presenting preliminary bindings from interview research with art-money producers, this article outlines some of the motives for becoming involved in this art/currency project, and some of the contradictions and challenges raised in its production and circulation.

This paper analyses a regional news bulletin in order to illustrate the ways in which media disco... more This paper analyses a regional news bulletin in order to illustrate the ways in which media discourse may contribute to popular understandings about place and social relations � Initially then, the programme Granada Tonight is shown to buy into dominant and conventional discourses about North West ‘reality’ and, as such, reaffirm the historical ‘othering ’ of North West culture in the regional and national psyche� However, the same text is then shown to be the site for resistant or oppositional ideas that undermine conventional discourse and encourage a more pro-active North West political culture�

The Politics of Cultural Work, 2007

It is commonly said that we live in a 'cultural' age, a 'creative' age, a time of artistic innova... more It is commonly said that we live in a 'cultural' age, a 'creative' age, a time of artistic innovators, knowledge entrepreneurs, e-gurus, fashion conceptualists, music-makers and all manner of digital hawkers, traders and image-makers. Certainly, since the 1960s there has been a rapid expansion of activity and employment in advertising, art, television, radio and film, fashion, graphic design, music, software production, gaming and leisure-a group of activities that have now come to be known collectively as the 'cultural industries'. Alongside this, the growth of what Bourdieu (1984) has famously referred to as 'cultural intermediary' occupations-cultural critics, journalists, talent-spotters, promoters and commentators-has helped furnish the markets for cultural industry goods and services. These days, few would doubt that in Western economies the cultural industries have, as Hesmondhalgh puts it, 'moved closer to the centre of the economic action' (2007, p. 1). Indeed, at a time when all manner of cultural 'assets' are being brought into the realm of economic calculation, Western (and some non-Western) governments have enthusiastically embraced the cultural industries as a solution to systemic crises of deindustrialization, heavily promoting the virtues of cultural production and investing substantial resources in ensuring that individuals and institutions are able to meet the challenges of this new 'creative age' (

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this p... more The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.