Productive misunderstandings. Performing arts and their socio-economic context[Des malentendus productifs. Spectacle vivant et contexte socio-économique]

The article situates some of the current specificities of the performing arts organisation in France in a broader context. The first three sections recall major features of the evolution of the socio-economic organisation of performing arts in France. During the 19th century, the modernist conception of art carried by Romanticism fitted in with an economic liberalism that was little concerned with social rights, even if a few attempts to invent a theatre for the people began to appear. In the second half of the 20th century, a partially regulated organisation of the performing arts was set up, in which the rise of salaried staff and public intervention played a structuring role. The end of the 20th century is marked by the development of flexibility for both organisations and employment. As a result, it accentuates the existing institutional cut-offs and the use of a large number of intermittent employees that became allowed by a special system of unemployment insurance. The fourth section underlines how a new standard of creative and flexible individuation gets imposed upon everyone. As a consequence, it generates the need to invent new forms of security for both individuals and organisations. Like the other art worlds, the performing arts play a full part in this evolution. The fifth section advocates for a unified activity contract that would allow each worker to better articulate the different moments and statutes of his activity. This contract is particularly needed in the "third sector" of private initiative but for non-profit making purposes in performing arts. The last section outlines, without hiding its implementation difficulties, a proposal for a device more able to take into account the plurality of functions and activities of salaried workers in the performing arts. The purpose of this device is to provide them with additional compensation for the many unpaid work hours they yet have to perform. A postscript proposes a reflection about the unemployment insurance system for intermittent employees and its desirable evolution.