Blurring life and work: the predicament of young middle-class women in Shanghai.

The article examines the positioning of young middle-class women in the dispositif of creativity in China. Based on empirical fieldwork, it argues that the call to be creative – as a form of governmentality – directs the middle-class youth to work and live with limited social protections. The discou...

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Publicado en:Cultural Studies Vol. 36; no. 2; pp. 302 - 320
Autor principal: Lin, Lili
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Taylor & Francis Ltd Mar 2022
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        au: Lin, Lili
        affil: Department of Sociology, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
      su:
        Middle class women
        Creative ability
        Governmentality
        Adaptability (Personality)
        China
      sug:
        subj:
          China
          Middle class women
          Creative ability
          Governmentality
          Adaptability (Personality)
      keyword:
        creative work
        flexibility
        governmentality
        Shanghai
        urban China
        Young middle-class women
      ab: The article examines the positioning of young middle-class women in the dispositif of creativity in China. Based on empirical fieldwork, it argues that the call to be creative – as a form of governmentality – directs the middle-class youth to work and live with limited social protections. The discourse of creativity marks a tendency whereby young middle-class women are subject to an increasingly flexible, informal, and precarious condition. Instead of being taken merely as victims of such a 'creativity dispositif', the young middle-class women in this research reject the stable jobs within the system and prioritize the value of flexibility promoted by the cultural and creative industries. Besides, they embrace the self-enterprising culture as a new norm and engage themselves actively in multiple ways of capitalizing their skills, lived experience, and social relations. Such activities eventually dissolve the boundaries between life and work, both formally and informally. Thus, under the joint forces of state and market, the discourse of creativity operates as a self-motivating mechanism that facilitates these women to embrace flexibility and entrepreneurship in acts of self-actualization. Consequentially, all pain and risks emerging from the tiring and unbearable working life are perceived as personal problems to be dealt with by the individuals alone. These young middle-class women seek recourse in the market and their families to solve their problems.
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    language: English
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