With few exceptions, independent cultural workers are in a precarious situation, facing
insecurity and often poverty. The resulting class conditioning of cultural work should be
unacceptable. This thesis examines the precarisation of cultural workers from the beginnings of
neoliberal policies in Yugoslavia through their promotion in independent Slovenia to the
present day, and explores how cultural policies have contributed and continue to contribute to
the precarisation of cultural workers. The aspects of precariousness that characterise freelance
work in culture are presented in more detail. In an attempt to improve their difficult situation,
cultural workers organise themselves into various organisations. Based on interviews, the thesis
presents three organisations working to improve the working conditions of workers in culture.
The case of the service and advocacy organisation Društvo Asociacija and the trade unions
Zasuk and SUKI are used to present the practices of organising independent cultural workers,
in particular their origins, organisation, understanding of precariousness in culture, involvement
of members and the way they work.
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