Naslov
Foreign film production and the local labour market: The case of Croatia

Autori
Primorac, Jaka ; Randle, Keith

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, sažetak, znanstveni

Skup
International Labour Process Conference 2017. Reconnecting Work and Political Economy.

Mjesto i datum
Sheffield, Ujedinjeno Kraljevstvo, 04.04.2017. - 06.04.2017

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
creative labour ; audiovisual industry ; political economy of media and communication

Sažetak
Previous research on creative labour has confirmed that work in the audiovisual industries is largely project-based (Blair, 2001 ; Randle and Culkin, 2009 ; Apitzsch, 2013 ; Eikhof and Warhurst, 2013) and that this has significant implications for participants. Audiovisual workers cooperate through ‘project networks’ that are characterised by team interdependence and are adaptive to environmental demands (Jones, 2000). Analyses of the development of project networks is especially important in the context of incoming foreign film productions (often referred to – particularly from the perspective of the dominant US industry - as ‘runaway production’ [Peltzman, 2012 ; Elmer and Gasher, 2005 ; Johnson-Yale, 2008]), as they are thought to bring financial benefits, jobs, foreign creative workers, and with them a particular ‘industry culture’ (Jones, 2000) to the host country. The resulting newly created project networks have the capacity to interact in the labour markets of local audiovisual industries (Coe, 2000 ; Coe and Johns, 2004), but within specific historical and socio-political contexts that are characterised by already distinctive industry cultures. The conventional wisdom is that there is actually little interaction between local and incoming production networks. Previous research on incoming film production has focused primarily on: 1. the loss, or potential loss, of jobs in the outgoing countries - that is, the countries from which production has ‘run away’ (Peltzman, 2012 ; Coe, 2000 ; Coe and Johns, 2004) ; 2. the influence they have on the lowering of labour costs in film production globally (Mosco and McKerscher, 2008) ; 3. the uncertain conditions that workers in these productions operate within, (Randle and Culkin, 2009) and which might, as a result of runaway production, become more precarious and ; 4. the emergence of dual labour markets in film industries with the introduction of foreign film productions (Szczepanik, 2013, 2015). However, there has to date been little focus on the impact of incoming film production on the host country and an analysis of cooperation, co-creation, or virtual work practices within ‘creative labour’ in foreign film productions has been absent. In this paper we provide a critical analysis of the impact of incoming film productions on the labour market of one particular audiovisual industry - Croatia. This is done by presenting data from case study research on foreign film productions in Croatia during 2015 - 2016. The case study is underpinned by an exploratory, sequential, mixed-method design (Cresswell, 2009) that combines an analysis of quantitative indicators i.e. fiscal indicators of the Foreign Film Incentive Programme provided by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre ; data from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics and Croatian Employment Service ; and qualitative data gathered by the research team – based on expert interviews (Bogner, Littig and Menz, 2009) with key stakeholders within audiovisual production in Croatia - using the interview guide approach (Patton 2002). The analysis begins by exploring the historical and structural factors influencing the local labour market in Croatia’s audiovisual industry ; then it goes on to decipher patterns of interactions and power structures created within particular project networks as a result of incoming production. The aim of the paper is to provide a background for a more multi-layered discussion on the commodification of labour in media and communication industries in general (Mosco, 2008), and to contribute to our understanding of structural imbalances in the global creative economy.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Sociologija

POVEZANOST RADA