Transforming Creative Potential in Project Networks: How TV Movies are Produced Under Network-Based Control
Critical Sociology, Vol. 33, No. 1, pp. 19-42, 2007
Posted: 16 Aug 2010 Last revised: 24 Jul 2012
Date Written: June 1, 2007
Abstract
Project networks have been identified as dynamic, yet relatively stable organizational forms in project-based creative industries. They materialize in longer-term actor relationships which are actualized by and institutionalized through particular projects. This article examines how project networks transform creative potential for and beyond particular projects. The transformation process is enabled and constrained by the dialectic of network-based control which refers to the capacity of actors to reproduce relational power and autonomy within actor constellations in project networks. This study is empirically based on a qualitative analysis of two projects launched from project networks of two major German TV production companies. Theoretically, the study draws on concepts from structuration theory.
Keywords: Creative work, project organizing, network organizing, project network, TV movie production, labor transformation, structuration theory
JEL Classification: M51, M54, M55, L82, J24, J44, J62, L14, D23, Z13, Z19, M11
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