COMM3960
Module Reading List

Session 1. Why study cultural labour?

Key readings

Banks, Mark (2007) The politics of cultural work. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.  

Deuze, Mark (2016) Managing media workers. In Lowe and Brown (eds) Managing media firms and industries : what's so special about media management? (pp. 329-341). Springer, Cham.  

Hesmondhalgh, David (2012) The Cultural Industries, 3rd edition. Sage.  

Hesmondhalgh, David and Sarah Baker (2011) Creative Labour: Media Work in Three Cultural Industries. New York: Routledge.  

Neff, Gina (2012) Venture labor : work and the burden of risk in innovative industries, Boston: MIT.  

Oakley, Kate (2009) Art Works – a review of the literature on cultural and creative labour markets. (available at http://old.creativitycultureeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/CCE-lit-review-8-a5-web-130.pdf and on VLE)

Ross, Andrew (2004) No-collar : the humane workplace and its hidden costs. New York: Basic Books  

Wolff, Janet (1981) The social production of art. London: McMillan    

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Session 2. Commerce and creativity

Seminar Readings

Caves, R. (2000) Creative industries : contracts between art and commerce ISBN: 0674008081 (pbk). Harvard University Press, Chapter 1 Introduction pp1-17. OCR REQUESTED BY LIBRARY (fad 07/02/2019) 

Keat, R. 1999. Market boundaries and the commodification of culture. In: L. Ray and S. Sayers (eds) Culture and economy after the cultural turn ISBN: 0761958177 (pbk.) : No price; 0761958169. London: Sage, pp. 92-111.

Further reading

Baker, Edwin. (1997) Giving the audience what it wants. Ohio State Law Journal. 58(2), pp.311-417  

Becker, Howard (1982). Art worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press. See Chapter 1 ‘Art worlds and collective activity’ (pp. 1-39) and Chapter 8 ‘Integrated professionals, mavericks, folk artists and naïve artists’ (pp.226-272).

Bilton, C. 2014. Uncreativity: the shadow side of creativity, The international journal of cultural policy., DOI:10.1080/10286632.2014.892933

Bilton, C. (2007). Management and creativity : from creative industries to creative management. Oxford, Blackwell.

Elliott, Philip. (1977) Media organizations and occupations: an overview. In: J. Curran, M. Gurevitch and J. Woollacott (eds) Mass communication and society. Beverly Hills: Sage, pp.142-173.

Florida, Richard (2002) The Rise of the Creative Class . New York: Basic Books.Chapter 8, Managing Creativity.

Hallin, Daniel (2000) ‘Commercialism and professionalism in the American news media’, in James Curran and Michael Gurevitch (eds.), Mass Media and Society, 3rd edition. London: Arnold, pp.218-237.

Hesmondhalgh, David (2019) The Cultural Industries, 4th edition. London and Los Angeles: Sage

Keat, Russell. (2000) Cultural goods and the limits of the market. London, New York: Routledge.

Klein, Bethany (2008) ’”The new radio”: music licensing as a response to industry woe’. Media Culture and Society. 30(4):463-478.

Negus, Keith and Michael Pickering (2004) Creativity, communication and cultural value. London: Sage.

Pratt, Andy and Paul Jeffcutt (eds) (2009) Creativity, innovation and the cultural economy. London and New York.

Ross, Andrew (2007) ‘Nice work if you can get it: the mercurial career of creative industries policy’, in Work, Organisation, Labour and Globalisation, 1(1), pp. 13-30: for its summary of the development of creative industries thinking in Britain, the USA and China (cf Hesmondhalgh, pp. 82-89 above).   OCR REQUESTED BY LIBRARY (AJ 17/02/2022) 

Ryan, Bill (1992) Making capital from culture : the corporate form of capitalist cultural production. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, chapter 22, pp. 33-60

Smith, Chris & McKinlay. Alan (2009) Creative labour : working in the creative industries. See Chapter 2, Creative Labour: Content, Contract and Control

Taylor, S & Littleton, K.2012 Contemporary identities of creativity and creative work. Abingdon: Ashgate.

Wolff, Janet (1981). The social production of art. London: McMillan, Chapter 1, “Social Structure and Artistic Creativity”

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Session 3: Autonomy and alienation

Seminar reading

Banks, Mark. (2010) Autonomy guaranteed? Cultural work and the “art-commerce relation”. Journal for cultural research. ISSN: 1479-7585. 14(3), pp.251-269.

Duffy, B. (2015). Amateur, autonomous, and collaborative: Myths of aspiring female cultural producers in Web 2.0. Critical studies in media communication ISSN: 1529-5036, 32(1), 48-64.

Further reading

Blauner, Robert (1964) Alienation and Freedom: The factory worker and his industry. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Hesmondhalgh, David and Sarah Baker (2011) Creative Labour: Media Work in Three Cultural Industries. New York: Routledge. Chapter 4 on autonomy, pp.25-36 on concept of alienation

Marx, Karl (1844) ‘Estranged labour’, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, downloaded from http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/labour.htm The relevant passage is extracted on the module teaching materials site.

Rey, P. J. (2012). Alienation, exploitation, and social media. American behavioral scientist. , 56(4), 399-420.

Ryan, Bill. (1992) Making Capital from Culture. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter.

Several of the more generalist readings from week 2 also address autonomy and alienation.

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Session 4: Flexible and precarious labour

Seminar reading

Lee, David (2012) The Ethics of Insecurity: Risk, Individualisation and Value in British Independent Television Production. Television & New Media ISSN: 1527-4764. DOI: 10.1177/1527476411424419

Zoellner, Anna and David Lee (2020) ‘Labour and risk in the media industries: Individual and organisational perspectives’ in M.B. von Rimscha (ed.) Management and Economics of Communication. Series: Handbooks in Communication Science, pp: 241-259. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110589542-013

Further reading

Haunschild, A & Eikhof, D. 2009. Bringing Creativity to Market: Actors as Self-Employed Employees in Smith, Chris & McKinlay. A. (Eds) Creative labour : working in the creative industries.

Lloyd, R. 2006. Neo-Bohemia : art and commerce in the postindustrial city. London: Routledge.

Nelson, B and Rossiter, N. 2008. Precarity as a Political Concept, or, Fordism as Exception. Theory, culture & society., 25, 7-8, pp 51-72

O'Connor, J., M. Banks, A. Lovatt and C. Raffo (2000) `Risk and Trust in the Cultural Industries', Geoforum. 31(4): 453-64.

Perlin, R. (2012). Intern nation: How to earn nothing and learn little in the brave new economy. Verso Books.

Ross, A. (2009) Nice Work If You Can Get It: Life and Labor in Precarious Times. NYU Press, New York.

Standing, G. (2011). The precariat: The new dangerous class. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Towse, Ruth (1992) ‘The labour market for artists’, Richerce Economiche 46, 55-74.   OCR REQUESTED BY LIBRARY (AJ 17/02/2022) 

Ursell, Gillian (2006) ‘Working in the media’, in David Hesmondhalgh (ed.), Media production. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

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Session 5. Exploitation, self-exploitation and Governmentality 

Seminar reading

Banks, Mark (2007) The politics of cultural work. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Chapter 3 on 'Governmentality and cultural work'.

Ursell, Gillian (2000) ‘Television production: issues of exploitation, commodification and subjectivity in UK television labour markets’, Media, culture & society.22(6): 805-25.

Further reading

Christopherson, Susan (2006) ‘Behind the scenes: how transnational firms are constructing a new international division of labor in media work’, Geoforum 37(5): 739-51.

Blair, Helen (2001) ‘“You’re only as good as your last job”: the labour process and labour market in the British film industry’, Work, employment and society.. 15(1): 149-169.

Hesmondhalgh, D. 2010. User-generated content, free labour and the cultural industries. Ephemera : theory and politics in organization. . 10,3/4, pp 267- 284 - Available online: http://www.ephemerajournal.org/contribution/user-generated-content-free-labour-and-cultural-industries

McRobbie, Angela (2002) ‘Clubs to companies, notes on the decline of political culture in speeded-up creative worlds’, Cultural studies. 16,4: 516-31.

McRobbie, Angela (2002) From Holloway to Hollywood: Happiness at work in the new cultural economy?, in: P. du Gay and M. Pryke (eds) Cultural Economy. London and Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 97-114.

Murdock, Graham (2003) ‘Back to work: cultural labor in altered times’, pp. 15-35 in A. Beck (ed.) Cultural work : understanding the cultural industries. London: Routledge

Oakley, Kate (2009) From Bohemia to Britart – Art Students over 50 years. Cultural trends., Vol 18, 4, pp 281-294

Willmott, Hugh and Knights, David (1989) ‘Power and subjectivity at work : from degradation to subjugation in social relations’, Sociology 23(4): 535-58.

Wittel, Andreas (2001) “Toward a network sociality”,Theory, culture & society., 51- 76.

Readings on Representations of Media Labour

Bereton, Pat (2009) Hollywood Representations of Irish Journalism: A Case Study of Veronica Guerin. Irish Communications Review. 11: 104-114. https://arrow.dit.ie/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.co.uk/&httpsredir=1&article=1032&context=aaschmedart

Fitzpatrick, Kathleen (2001) "Network: The Other Cold War," Film & History 31(2): 33-39.

Halfyard, Janet (2006) Screen playing: cinematic representations of classical music performance and European identity, in: Mera, Miguel and David Burnand (eds) European film music . Ashgate, pp. 73- 85.


Hayward, P. (1998) Introduction: Representing Representations. In: Hayward, P. (ed.) Picture This. Media Representations of Visual Art and Artists. 2nd ed. pp. 1-26.

Hearn, Alison (2008) ‘Variations on the branded self: theme, invention, improvisation and inventory’, in David Hesmondhalgh and Jason Toynbee (eds), The Media and Social Theory. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.


Jennings, E. (2016). The librarian stereotype: How librarians are damaging their image and profession. College & undergraduate libraries , 23(1), 93-100.

McNair, B. (2011). Journalists in film: heroes and villains. Australian Journalism Review, 33(1), 133. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303580955_Journalists_in_film_Heroes_and_villains

Stahl, Matt (2004) ‘”A moment like this: American Idol and narratives of meritocracy’, in Chris Washburne and Maiken Derno (eds), Bad Music: the Music We Love to Hate. New York: Routledge.

Stahl, Matt (2008) ‘Sex and drugs and bait and switch: rockumentary and the new model worker’, in David Hesmondhalgh and Jason Toynbee (eds), The Media and Social Theory. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.

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Session 6. Immaterial, affective and emotional labour

Seminar Reading

Gill, R & Pratt, A. 2008. In the Social Factory? Immaterial Labour, Precariousness and Cultural Work, Theory, culture & society. vol. 25 no. 7-8 1-30.

Grindstaff, Laura (2002) The money shot : trash, class, and the making of TV talk shows. University of Chicago Press: Chicago, chapter 4, pp. 129-147

Further reading

Brophy, Enda and de Peuter, Greig (2007) ‘Immaterial labor, precarity and recomposition’, pp. 177-92 in C. McKerchner and V. Mosco (eds) Knowledge workers in the information society. Lanham, MD: Lexington

Gregg, M. 2011.Work's intimacy. Cambridge:Polity.

Hesmondhalgh, David and Sarah Baker (2008) ‘Creative work and emotional labour in the television industry’, Theory, Culture and Society 25(5).

Hesmondhalgh, David and Sarah Baker (2011) Creative Labour: Media Work in Three Cultural Industries. New York: Routledge. Chapter 7.

Hochschild, Arlie R. (1983) The managed heart : commercialization of human feeling. University of California Press: Berkeley, chapter 1, pp. 3-23

Wei, J. 2012. Dealing with reality: Market demands, artistic integrity, and identity work in reality television production, Poetics.40 (2012) 444–466

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Session 7. Diversity and inequality

Seminar reading

Hesmondhalgh, David and Sarah Baker (2008) ‘Creative work and emotional labour in the television industry’, Theory, culture & society. 25(5).

Thornham, S. (2017) ‘Reflections on Equality, Diversity and Gender at the End of a Media Studies Headship’, Television & New Media ISSN: 1527-4764 18(7): 689-696.

Further reading

Allen, K. J. Quinn, S. Hollingworth, and A. Rose (2012) “Doing Diversity and Evading Equality: the case of student work placements in the creative sector” in Taylor, Y. (ed.) Educational Diversity: the subject of difference and different subjects. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Banks, M. (2017) Creative justice : cultural industries, work and inequality ISBN: 9781786601308 (electronic book); 1786601303 (electronic book); 9781786601285 (hardcover alkaline paper); 178660129X; 1786601281. Rowman and Littlefield

Bhargava, D. and P. Theunissen (2019) The future of PR is ‘fantastic’, ‘friendly’ and ‘funny’: Occupational stereotypes and symbolic capital in entry-level job advertisements. Public Relations Review 45(4), 101822.

Edwards, Lee (2015) Power, diversity and public relations. London: Routledge.

Edwards, Lee (2014). Discourse, credentialism and occupational closure in the communications industries: The case of public relations in the UK. European Journal of Communication, 29(3), 319–334.

Edwards, Lee (2013) Institutional racism in cultural production: the case of public relations. Popular Communication, 11 (3). pp. 242-256. ISSN 1540-5702

Gill, R. (2011). Sexism reloaded, or, it's time to get angry again! Feminist Media Studies, 11(1), 61-71.

McRobbie, Anegla. (2011) Reflections on feminism, immaterial labour and the post-Fordist regime, New Formations, Winter 70, pp 60-76.

O’Brien, A. and J. Suiter (2017) Best and worst practice: a case study of qualitative gender balance in Irish broadcasting. Media, Culture & Society, Vol. 39(2) 259–269. DOI: 10.1177/0163443716686942

Proctor-Thomson, S. (2013) Feminist futures of cultural work? Creativity, gender and difference in the digital media sector, in: Banks, Gill & Taylor (Eds) Theorizing Cultural Work, London: Routledge

Pease note: There is a special issue of The Sociological Review (vol 63, issue S1) on gender and creative labour from 2015 that contains several articles focusing on various media industries. Also check for reports on diversity in the media industries by Ofcom and Skillset.

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Session 8. Researching media work

Further reading

Bruun, H. (2016) The Qualitative Interview in Media Production Studies, in; Paterson, C. et al (eds) Advancing media production research : shifting sites, methods, and politics New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 131-147

Burgess, R.G (1991) In the Field: An Introduction To Field Research. London: Routledge. See Chapter 5: ‘Interviews as Conversations’.

Cassell, C. & Symon, G. (eds) (1994) Qualitative methods in organizational research : a practical guide. London: Sage. See Chapter 2, ‘The qualitative research interview’ by Nigel King (pp. 14-35)

Cunliffe, A.L. (2008) Discourse Analysis. In Thorpe, R. and Holt, R. (2008) The Sage Dictionary of Qualitative Management Research. London: Sage Publications.

Denzin, N. K. & Lincoln, Y. S. (eds.) (2005). The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research. London: Sage

Foddy , W (1993) Constructing Questions for Interviews and Questionnaires: Theory and Practice in Social Research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Goffman, E. (1959) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Reprinted 1990, London: Penguin.

Holstein, J.A & Gubrium, J.F. (1995). The Active Interview. London: Sage.

Jensen, K.B. & Jankowski, N.W. (eds.) (1991) A Handbook of Qualitative Methodologies for Mass Communication Research. London: Routledge. Chapter 2 (pp.44-74).

Kvale, S. (1996)Interviews : an introduction to qualitative research interviewing. London: Sage.

Silverman, D. (2000) Doing Qualitative Research: A Practical Handbook, London: Sage. See Chapter 1 for a brief overview of qualitative research and pp.31-37 on research interviews.

Strauss, A. and Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of Qualitative researchh. London : Sage Publications.

Warren, C.A.B. (2002) ‘Qualitative interviewing’, in Jaber Gubrium and James Holstein (eds.) Handbook of interview research : context & method. London: Sage. Chapter.2 (pp. 83- 102) Available as an Online Course Reading in Minerva

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Session 9. Good and meaningful work

Seminar readings

Hesmondhalgh, David and Anna Zoellner (2012) Is Media Work Good Work? A Case Study of Television Documentary, in: Valdivia, AN, (ed.) The International Encyclopedia of Media Studies. Oxford and Malden, MA: Blackwell, pp: 557- 581. http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/42878/2/Hesmondhalgh_Zoellner_final_version_11_feb_2011%5B1%5D.pdf

Keat, Russell (2009) Antiperfectionism, market economies and the right to meaningful work, Analyse und Kritik, 31(1): 121-138. Available online https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/auk.2009.31.issue-1/auk-2009-0108/auk-2009-0108.pdf

Further reading

Banks, Mark (2007)The politics of cultural work. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, chapter 5 on ‘Choice, reflexivity and alternative cultural work

Blauner, Robert (1964) Alienation and Freedom: The factory worker and his industry. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Bradshaw, A,,McDonagh, P. & Marshall, D. The Alienated Artist and the Political Economy of Organised Art,Consumption, markets & culture., 9:02, 111-117.

Edwards, Paul and Wajcman, Judy (2005) The Politics of Working Life. Oxford: OUP.

Green, Francis (2006) Demanding Work: The paradox of job quality in the affluent society. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Grodach, C., Fister, N., & Murdoch, J. 2014. Gentrification and the Artistic Dividend: The Role of the Arts in Neighbourhood Change. Journal of the American Planning Association..

Hesmondhalgh, David and Sarah Baker (2011) Creative Labour. Media work in three cultural industries. London: Routledge.

Hodson, Randy (2001) Dignity at Work. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

MacIntyre, Alisdair (1984) After Virtue: A study in moral theory. (2nd ed.) London: Duckworth.

Muirhead, Russell (2005) Just Work. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Sayer, Andrew (2007) Dignity at work: broadening the agenda, Organisation, 14(4): 565-581.

Schwartz, A. (1982) “Meaningful Work”, Ethics 92: 634-46.

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Session 10. Organising, professionalism and resistance

Seminar Reading

Aldridge, M. and J. Evetts (2003) Rethinking the concept of professionalism: the case of journalism. The British journal of sociology. ISSN: 0007-1315, vol. 54, no. 4,: 547-564

Nelson, A. J., & Irwin, J. (2014). “Defining what we do—all over again”: Occupational identity, technological change, and the librarian/Internet-search relationship Academy of Management journal. ISSN: 0001-4273, 57(3), 892-928.

Further reading

Baumann, A. (2002) Informal Labour Market Governance: the Case of the British and German Media Production Industries. Work, Employment & Society, 16(1), pp. 27-46.

Blair, H., Culkin, N. and K. Randle (2003) From London to Los Angeles: A comparison of local labour market processes in the US and UK film industries. International journal of human resource management. ISSN: 0958-5192 Vol. 14 (4): 619-633

Bodnar, C (2006) Taking it to the Streets: French Cultural Workers resistance and the Creation of a Precariat Movement,Canadian journal of communication, Vol 31, 675-694

Cohen, N. and de Peuter, G. (2013) “The Politics of Precarity: can the urban worker strategy address precarious employment for all? ” Briarpatch, November/December: 6-9. - Available online: https://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/view/urban-worker-strategy-andrew-cash

de Peuter, G. and N. Cohen. (2015). "Emerging Labour Politics in Creative Industries." In K. Oakley and J. O'Connor (eds.) The Routledge companion to the cultural industries. New York: Routledge. pp.305-318

de Peuter, G. (2014). Beyond the Model Worker: Surveying a Creative Precariat. Culture Unbound.

Dorling, D. (2014). Inequality and the 1%. Verso Books.

Elliott, P. (1972b) The Sociology of the Professions. London, Macmillan.

Jeppesen, S., & Petrick, K. (2018). Toward an intersectional political economy of autonomous media resources. Interface. A Journal on Social Movements, 10(1-2): 8-37.

Oakley, K. 2013. Absentee workers: representation and participation in cultural industries, in Banks, Gill, & Taylor (Eds).Theorizing cultural work : labour, continuity and change in the cultural and creative industries, London: Routledge.

Tunstall, J. (ed.) Media Occupations and Professions: a reader. New York: Oxford University Press.

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Session 11. Review and assignment preparation

No readings assigned this week.

This list was last updated on 24/01/2022

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