ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the social policy research and the sociology of work considering the figure of the artist and the artist's lifestyle with the wider social context. It attempts to engage with work and welfare as key sites where questions of freedom and security intrinsic to definitions of creativity are played out. Certain aspects of the post-war European welfare state can also be seen as embodying these principles of top-down organisation and the institutionalisation of social norms. In connection with the development of the welfare state, public housing was built on a grand scale in the post-war period, as a response to slum landlordism and mass homelessness immediately following the Second World War. The rejection of post-war social norms, particularly in the 1960s, drew on aspects of historical bohemia, which can be seen as providing a template to express desires for an authentic lifestyle.
