Re-reading the darkest side of the story: creative industries, cultural work and the formation of young employees under the hegemony of late capitalism in Turkey

Abstract This article explores the ongoing relations between creative industries, cultural work and the formation of young Turkish creative professionals’ self- realization practices under the existing conditions of Turkey’s ‘neo authoritarian’ liberalism. Drawing on the relational work perspective from economic sociology and semi-structured interviews with the study’s respondents (N:120), this article will be headed towards the reconsideration of social, economic, political and cultural constitutions of Turkish creative professionals’ formation in the creative economies of Turkey. In contrast with the majority of existing studies on this topic, this study argues that, contemporary capitalism’s impact on the creative professionals’ formations is not the necessarily the same. Profound differences there exist. Especially, the cultural and economic constitutions of creative professionals’ in any given states creative economies conditions. Therefore, my study would conclude that the impact of late capitalism on creative labour is not unidirectional at least not in Turkish labours case. Conversely, the post Fordist service economies provide some positive contributions to Turkish young creative labourers’ subjectivities.