Kreatörers försörjning - En modell för värdeutbyten i de kreativa näringarna
That many creative workers have uncertain and uneven incomes is well-established, but how or why they make a living is not. This paper examines the elusive value exchanges between creatives, buyers, consumers, and other economic supporters, and offers a model of how creatives make a living. By mapping income statistics of Swedish creatives together with in-depth interviews some patterns emerge. This, combined with Bourdieu's theories of social, cultural and symbolic capital, and Knorr's objects of sociality, forms a basis for a structured model of value exchange. The paper shows how creative workers create economic and non-economic capital (capitalization), how they advertise this capital (signaling), and how they convert between different types of capital (conversion) in order to make a living. The model can explain the non-economic value exchanges that underlie sponsorship from governments, patrons and family. Also, the results show that creatives make a living by working informally, lowering living standards, and through private consumption in their companies. In practice, the model is useful for understanding, helping, or working as a creative. Further, the model can be used for analyzing other industries that primarily deal with symbolic and social exchange. It can also serve as model for quantitative studies, which could further shed light on the size of these non-economic exchanges.