The aim of the book is to move beyond static and a-historical readings of the cultural/creative industries by inviting leading theorists to reflect on the ways in which forms of cultural work are embedded historically and socially, as well as assessing the extent to which they are illustrative of some putatively new social relations of work. To this end, the book supports the CRESC CES book series by offering an empirically-based, comparative and historical approach to a key aspect of social change. It adopts a global perspective, utilising a range of theoretical resources and case studies to provide an analysis of both local and internationally inter-linked cultural/creative labour processes as they unfold across different territories and economic regimes. The book also considers the strange tenacity of cultural and creative work as a locus for politics and social critique. It thus considers the history and future of cultural work in light of the immediate (post-crisis) and longer term social context.