Precariousness of work in the fields of art and culture: its contradictions, heterogeneity and inequalities. An approach of the Argentine audiovisual industry

Abstract

This article analyzes the issue of precarious work in the fields of arts and culture. In particular, we propose to contribute to unravel its main contradictions and unmask its most important idealizations by an empirical approach founded on the audiovisual industry in Argentina. This approach combines quantitative and qualitative techniques, centrally, analysis of documentary sources and statistics, and in-depth interviews. First, we address the contradictory nature of this precarious work, which tends to be autonomous and vocational, but which also constrains from classic and renewed forms of exploitation and dependency. We also show that job insecurity in the audiovisual field is very heterogeneous and uneven according to organizational, class and gender factors. Second, we analyze the challenges and possibilities that arise in these productive areas to respond collectively to the prevailing job insecurity, taking into account the prevailing trends towards the fragmentation and individualization of experiences. The analysis developed in the Argentine audiovisual industry allows us to affirm that union and collective organization practices based on the profession and gender activism constitute important social forces to respond to the challenging processes of job degradation and precariousness.