• University of Amsterdam

• Labour & Income,
• Arts & Culture

Turning post-materialism on its head: self-expression, autonomy and precarity at work in the creative industries

This article investigates values of work in the creative industries in the Netherlands by researching whether non-material values of work are more important than material values, and how this is impacted by precarity. Two approaches are evaluated: post-materialist theory and critical research on the creative industries. The results of the vignette survey confirm that the relationship between precarity and non-material work values is not straightforward. There is a clear preferences among creative workers fornon-material values of work such as autonomy and self-expression, compared to material rewards such as pay and benefits, even when controlled for levels of precarity experienced by respondents. These results point towards the conclusion that post-materialism theories fail to explain the values of work at avanguard sector of post-fordist economies, suggesting instead that more research is needed into the relationship between non-material values and precarity.

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