A lecture given by Prof. Angela McRobbie (Goldsmiths University of London) This lecture provides a critical overview of the rise and role of the ‘creative economy’ as a dispositif of a specific mode of governmentality with reference to transformations in the modern work society. The lecture takes the form of presenting 6 theses, which include attention to social class, gendering processes, with self-making as a process of making-over young designated subjects by means of the myth and mystique of ‘creativity’. In this regard the period of the UK New Labour government is significant for its focus on the ‘talent-led economy’. The question then is how and where this myth of creativity is punctured and with what effect? The lecture draws on The Birth of Biopolitics (2008) by Foucault, but also works to offer some final reflections on the re-designation of tools and models of cultural entrepreneurship and how we can sociologically interpret the critique of subjects in the creative field as socialised self-reflexivity.