Authors

Discussion

In the critical theorisations of neoliberalism, creativity is examined as a disciplining force enhancing productivity and competitiveness. Its prominence is discussed in the context of individualisation and dissolution of communities, and the precarisation of labour. Simultaneously, feminist everyday creativity scholars try to “democratise” creativity by pointing out its obscured dimensions, not corresponding to its hegemonic, masculinised images. They argue that caring, unspectacular activities that sustain and reproduce everyday life rely on creative practices. My research combines those theoretical approaches while engaging with Poland's ‘long ‘90s’. I explore the issue of creativity from the perspective of the commons and discuss the spaces of everyday creativity and creative practices as vital resources for marginalised groups, such as working-class women. In this presentation, I examine neoliberal ideology's gendered (re)construction of subjectivities and the enclosures of the communal spaces of everyday creativity. My research is concerned with the material and discursive revaluation of different forms of labour (and, more generally, human activities) in the context of privatisation of the means of (re)production, managerial turn and de-industrialisation. Post-socialist and semi-peripheral specificity of Poland – which took an extreme course in promoting anti-women backlash and implementing market reform – is crucial for this presentation.