‘They don’t need us’ : affective precarity and critique in transnational media work from the margins of ‘Cultural China’

Fong, Siao Yuong (2022) ‘They don’t need us’ : affective precarity and critique in transnational media work from the margins of ‘Cultural China’. Media, Culture and Society. ISSN 0163-4437

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Abstract

Creative labour studies has yielded much critical insights from workers’ experiences of ‘precarity’ and ‘self-exploitation’ with increasing neo-liberalization. This important work’s overwhelming focus on the critique of neoliberalism based on Euro American case studies risk overlooking insights that can be gained from other socio-geopolitical contexts. Drawing on a mix of ethnographic observations and interviews with transnational media producers in Singapore working at the margins of the mainland Chinese media industry, this paper teases out how intersecting cultural, economic and geopolitical power relations manifest in transnational creative labour working under the shadows of both the West and a rising China. Expanding on conceptions of emotional labour and precarity as serving neoliberal structures, I highlight how these producers’ experiences go beyond the economic connotations of precarity to capture what I call affective precarity – a felt sense of spatial-temporal dissonance confronting marginalized media workers. I also consider how such emotional labour can constitute a form of critique.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Media, Culture and Society
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3315
Subjects:
?? sociology and political sciencecommunicationcommunicationsociology and political science ??
ID Code:
181859
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
20 Dec 2022 15:00
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
07 Feb 2024 01:02