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