Negotiating educated subjectivity : intern labour and higher education in Hong Kong

Document Type

Journal article

Source Publication

tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique

Publication Date

2015

Volume

13

Issue

2

First Page

501

Last Page

508

Publisher

tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique

Keywords

internships, cultural work, educated subject, higher education

Abstract

This article examines interns’ negotiation of their work identity, with a focus on the nexus of transformations in higher education and the “new” capitalist economy. The existing literature on internships emphasizes the restructuring of employment in creative and cultural industries, the surplus cultural labour supply, and the impact of internships on the career paths of educated youth mostly in western countries. Based on interviews and participant observation in Hong Kong, I argue that the intern’s “educated subjectivity,” nurtured by new values and practices of higher education such as self-reflexive learning and interfacing with community, plays an important role in the making of the intern economy. These values and practices contribute to the ambiguity and elasticity of the role of interns identified in previous research on internships.

E-ISSN

1726670X

Publisher Statement

Copyright © 2015 by TripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique. tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique is an unconventional, uncommon, critical Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society. It is available for free on the Internet for your use.

Full-text Version

Publisher’s Version

Language

English

Recommended Citation

Ip, I.-c. (2015). Negotiating educated subjectivity: Intern labour and higher education in Hong Kong. tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique, 13(2), 501-508. Retrieved from http://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/596

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