The Murmuring of the Artistic Multitude: Global Art, Memory and Post‑Fordism

Here, art sociologist Pascal Gielen examines the notion that the global art economy‑with its ever‑renewable youth quota, its gender imbalance, flexible working hours and short‑term contracts (or lack of contracts)-is wholly congruent with the worst aspirations of late capitalism, and is ripe for economic exploitation. Conscious that art also offers real liberties, Gielen also proposes alternative models and argues for a recognition of the values implied by the creative process, rather than by the subtle coercions of post‑Fordist production imperatives to which we are all subject.