Time, Space and Agency in the Finnish Cultural Sector at the Time of COVID-19

Arja Haapakorpi, Minna Leinonen and Katri Otonkorpi-Lehtoranta
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Arja Haapakorpi: Work Research Centre, Tampere University, 33014 Tampere, Finland
Minna Leinonen: Work Research Centre, Tampere University, 33014 Tampere, Finland
Katri Otonkorpi-Lehtoranta: Work Community Development—Study Program, Humak University of Applied Sciences, 00400 Helsinki, Finland

Challenges, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: The organization of working times and workplaces has typically been diverse and hybrid for people working in culture. Work is characterized by precarious conditions such as short-term contracts and seasonal employment. The impact of COVID-19 has shown the vulnerability and uniqueness of the employment conditions in this sector. We collected personal written texts from people working in the cultural sector in spring 2020, when in Finland the first wave of COVID-19 was subsiding and nobody knew when the next wave would come. We analyzed the ways cultural workers constructed agency on temporal and relational dimensions as regards work and non-work. The content analytic approach highlighted two main types of situational agencies, the normative employment agency and the precarious work agency, both of which were shaped by the uncertain conditions of the cultural sector. Due to the differing employment conditions, both intensification of work and small agency were present in work of the cultural sector and posed challenges to the management of time and the future. However, the terms and conditions for agency construction varied, even under similar circumstances.

Keywords: agency; COVID-19; cultural sector; precarious employment; small agency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A00 C00 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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