Popular Music as Social Policy: hybrid-hierarchies and social inclusion through New Zealand's pop renaissance

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    9 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    This article addresses an interpretive gap in the creative industries as social policy literature. To date researchers have considered how contemporary governance formations enable artisans into markets and how state maintenance functions are reconfigured through creative industry workfare programmes. Drawing on research of state involvement with New Zealand's music industries it is argued that these supports evince another older form of social inclusion where Bismarckian status orders are reproduced through hybrid state-music industry hierarchies. Considering most aspiring musicians also work in the flexibilized service sector, these music policies unintendedly allow for the inclusion of large numbers of artisans in a national cultural project which supplies meaning beyond their labour market position. Such hierarchical structures give form to fluid identities while also enabling struggles over social esteem to be played out; all for a small entry in the national budget.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)304-322
    Number of pages19
    JournalJournal of Sociology
    Volume48
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Sept 2012

    Keywords

    • hierarchy
    • New Zealand
    • popular music
    • social policy
    • status
    • youth

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