The growth of the new economy and creative work has posed a range of challenges for young workers in the West. Creativity has come to signify something more than simply performing symbolic and knowledge work. To be creative is now also to exhibit an entrepreneurial savviness and a readiness to endure the vagaries of precarious work and the scrutiny of creative gatekeepers. In this paper, based on research in Australia amongst creative aspirants, we suggest that young men from working-class backgrounds, who are steeped in the traditions of communities of practice, are less able than young women to endure the rigours of the creative career. They are disinclined to ‘sell themselves’ and their skills, in churning creative labour markets, preferring the stable and cooperative forms of the work group to the individualistic and competitive structures of the new economy.
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