The precariousness of knowledge workers: hybridisation, self-employment and subjectification

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Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

Volume 10, Issue 2

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The precariousness of knowledge workers: hybridisation, self-employment and subjectification

research-article

Author(s): Annalisa Murgia , Lara Maestripieri , Emiliana Armano

Publication date (Print): Winter 2016

Journal: Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

Publisher: Pluto Journals

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Abstract

In knowledge-based industries, work is circumscribed by the cognitive frames of creativity in the representations of subjects, but simultaneously demands adaptability, in a context in which deregulation and individualisation are now normal. The ethics of self-activation are therefore inextricably intertwined with the demands of intensification, standardisation and self-commodification. The first volume of this Special Issue – which is made up of two different parts – focuses on the phenomena of hybridisation, self-employment and subjectification, at the core of the experiences of precarious workers in knowledge societies. This article introduces the first part of the two-part Special Issue on the precariousness of knowledge workers.

Content

Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.13169

Journal ID (publisher-id): workorgalaboglob

Title: Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN (Print): 1745641X

ISSN (Electronic): 17456428

Publication date (Print): Winter 2016

Volume: 10

Issue: 2

Pages: 1-8

Article

Publisher ID: workorgalaboglob.10.2.0001

DOI: 10.13169/workorgalaboglob.10.2.0001

SO-VID: 7219d001-2e3c-4bb8-ac26-c27ef5ed2d49

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History

ScienceOpen disciplines: Sociology,Labor law,Political science,Labor & Demographic economics,Political economics

References

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Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Alquati, R. (2001) Nella società industriale d'oggi , Torino: Paper Unpublished.

[2] Berger, S. (2005) How We Compete: What Companies around the World Are Doing to Make It in Today's Global Economy , Cambridge: MIT University Press.

[3] Bologna, S. & A. Fumagalli (1997) Il lavoro autonomo di seconda generazione. Scenari del postfordismo in Italia , Milano: Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore.

[4] Boltanski, L. & E. Chiappello (1999) Le nouvelle esprit du capitalisme , Paris: Gallimard.

[5] Butera, F., S. Bagnara, R. Cesaria & S. Di Guardo (2008) Knowledge Working. Lavoro, lavoratori, società della conoscenza , Milano: Mondadori.

[6] Castells, M. (2000) The Rise of the Network Society , Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

[7] Corsani, A. (2002) Sapere e lavoro nel capitalismo cognitivo: l'impasse dell'economia politica. Accessed September, 21, 2016 from http://www.thefreeuniversity.net/CognitiveCapitalism/corsani1.html.

[8] Drucker, P. (1959) Landmarks of Tomorrow , New York: Harper & Brothers.

[9] Eichhorst, W., M. Braga, U. Famira-Mühlberger, M. Gerard, T. Horvath, M. Kahancová, M.J. Kendzia, M. Martišková, P. Monti, J.L. Pedersen, J. Stanley, B. Vandeweghe, C. Wehner & C. White (2013) ‘Social protection rights of economically dependent self-employed workers’, IZA Research Report 54. Accessed September, 21, 2016 from http://www.iza.org/en/webcontent/publications/reports/report_pdfs/iza_report_54.pdf.

[10] Gill, R. & A.C. Pratt (2008) ‘In the social factory? Immaterial labour, precariousness and cultural work’, Theory, Culture & Society , 25 (7-8):1–30.

[11] Hardt, M. (1999) ‘Affective labour’, boundary 2 , 26 (2):89–100.

[12] Hesmondhalgh, D. & S. Baker (2008) ‘Creative work and emotional labour in the television industry’, Theory, Culture & Society , 25 (7-8):97–118.

[13] Hochschild, R.A. (1983) The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling , Berkeley: University of California.

[14] Hodgson, D.E. (2004) ‘Project work: The legacy of bureaucratic control in the post-bureaucratic organization’, Organization , 11 (1):81–100.

[15] Huws, U. (2010a) ‘Between a rock and a hard place: the shaping of employment in a global economy’, Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation , 4 (1):1–7.

[16] Huws, U. (2010b) ‘Expression and expropriation: The dialectics of autonomy and control in creative labour’, ephemera: theory & politics in organization , 10 (3-4):504–21.

[17] Huws, U. (2014) ‘Labour in the circuits of global markets: theories and realities’, Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation , 8 (1):1–4.

[18] Kunda, G. (1992) Engineering Culture: Control and Commitment in a High-Tech Corporation , Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

[19] Laville, J.L. (1998) L'economia solidale , Torino: Bollati Boringhieri.

[20] Magone, A. & T. Mazali (2016) Industria 4.0. Uomini e macchine nella fabbrica digitale , Milano: Guerini e associati.

[21] Marazzi, C. (2010) Il comunismo del capitale. Biocapitalismo, finanziarizzazione dell'economia e appropriazioni del comune , Verona: Ombre corte.

[22] McRobbie, A. (2011) ‘Beyond post-feminism’, Public Policy Research , 18 (3):179–84.

[23] Morini, C. & A. Fumagalli (2010) ‘Life put to work: Towards a life theory of value’, ephemera: theory & politics in organization , 10 (3-4):234–52.

[24] Murgia, A. (2016) ‘ERC Starting Grant Project Prosal’, SHARE – Seizing the Hybrid Areas of Work by Re-presenting Self-Employment. Unpublished work.

[25] Rapelli, S. (2012) European I-Pros: A Study , London: Professional Contractors Group (PCG). Accessed September, 30, 2016 from https://www.ipse.co.uk/sites/default/files/documents/research/efip_report_english-v1.pdf.

[26] Rullani, E. (2014) Lavoro cognitivo. Accessed September, 19, 2016 from http://www.sinistrainrete.info/lavoro-e-sindacato/3374-enzo-rullani-lavoro-cognitivo.html.

[27] Thrift, N. (2005) Knowing Capitalism , Theory, Culture & Society, London: Sage.