Filipino graphic artists as creative digital workers: Pseudo-cultural entrepreneurship in the global south

The Philippines creative industry is at a stage where there is vast potential for growth (Castillo 331)—in accordance with the call made by Gill, Hesmondhalgh, and Baker, when there is a goal of achieving economic growth for the labor market, it is important to look at the issues and working conditions of the creative laborer so as not to proliferate these precarious conditions (Gill 77-78; Hesmondhalgh and Baker 34). Thus, this study deemed it necessary to ask the following questions: [1] What are the distinct structural issues that may influence the working conditions of Philippine graphic artists?, and [2] How do the broader conditions of creative digital labor affect the consideration of graphic art as a viable form of work in the Philippines? In order to answer these questions, this study had drawn from the theoretical framework of Annette Naudin regarding cultural entrepreneurship and cultural production. A reworking of Bourdieu’s theory of field together with Chell and Karataş-Özkan’s framework of the micro-, meso- and macro-environments. This reworked theoretical framework aims to reinforce the importance of the subjective experience of workers and that these workers are social agents involved in a complex interplay between the social fields, the habitus, and forms of capital (Naudin 1). The results of this study had given aid to the creation of a policy brief detailing the current working conditions of graphic artists in the Philippines. This policy brief seeks to assist in improving the working environment for Philippine graphic artists by amending the bills previously filed from 2008 to 2019