Fantasy, Neoliberalism and Precariousness

Jérémy Vachet is Assistant Professor at the Culture and Communication department at Audencia, Nantes (France), where he is Head of the Program Management of Audiovisual Creation and Production. Jeremy is also an associate member of the LabSIC at the Sorbonne Paris Nord University (France). In the past decade, Jeremy has developed a career as an independent musician and producer. He received his PhD from the School of Media and Communication at the University of Leeds in 2019.

At a time when connections between gig work and neoliberal discourses of entrepreneurialism, autonomy, flexibility, and freedom are increasingly invoked, Jeremy Vachet’s well researched and theoretically rich treatise illuminates the pernicious psychosocial effects of the precarious working conditions of independent cultural workers. Integrating Interviews with independent musicians across five global cities, participant observations, and his own experiences as a musician, this work deftly illuminates the ways structural, normative, gendered and class pressures become enmeshed within a complex set of coping strategies and defense mechanisms, mechanisms which ultimately prevent individuals from flourishing. Filled with irony, compassion, insight, and hope, this book builds upon previous sociological, communicative, and psychoanalytic work on cultural labor and has wide ranging significance for anyone interested in the personal and collective impact of new forms of labor.

• Chapter 1. Introduction Chapter 2. Consequences of Individualisation: Pathologies of Freedom Chapter 3. Coping strategies and Defence mechanisms Chapter 4. Conclusion