On Friday Elevate presents events which have all been curated together with its We Are Europe partner festivals. Artists, their opportunities and their social roles and influences take center stage. In northern Africa and the Middle East they played an important part fighting for freedom during Arab Spring and they still do so today. In Europe certain groups of artists always played an important role in struggles for progressive social change as well. At the same time creative urban milieus were forerunners of the precarization of much of the working world. Today freelance jobs, short-term contracts and minimum wages characterize the professional lives of a big part of society. Passion, risk-taking, creativity and flexibility have become prerequisites for survival within postfordist capitalism. Do all artists have to become entrepreneurs or should they rather campaign for an unconditional basic income for all? 

Furthermore the international speakers debate new possibilities for the production, sharing and distribution of artistic creations. Can there be such a thing as fair trade music? Can new technologies such as Blockchain help artists to get payed more fairly? Which models and strategies make sense in the context of a collaborative economy?