Self-structuration of portfolio careers: Navigating the professional sphere of the creative industries

Abstract

We identify a component of ongoing self-motivation that has been called freelancing or self-employment, and ideas about entrepreneurial competencies needed to conduct a sustainable work-life. We examine three concept clusters concerning working in the arts and the creative sector, relating them to ideas about arts entrepreneurship and professionalism in the arts: Portfolio of jobs, Portfolio of hybrid practices, and Portfolio/Protean career. We investigate these research questions: How do cultural workers/artists’ experiences of portfolio work relate to discussions of both arts entrepreneurship and professionalism in the arts? And how do they create a sustainable career? To answer these questions, we undertake a conceptual literature review and mapping as our main methodology. We draw on a critical analysis of research, practice, and policy as well as numerous discussions and interviews with creative professionals and the authors’ experiences with educating students who aim to become cultural workers in the creative sector. Based on our findings, we developed the Integrated Model of Self-Structured Portfolio Professions. This model demonstrates how incomes and work practices tend to be clustered into portfolios that are self-structured by individual creative workers acting as the entrepreneurs of their own career management and sustainability.