The precariousness of knowledge workers (Part 2): forms and critiques of autonomy and self-representation

Annalisa Murgia, null; Lara Maestripieri, null; Emiliana Armano, null

doi:10.13169/workorgalaboglob.11.1.0001

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Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

Volume 11, Issue 1

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The precariousness of knowledge workers (Part 2): forms and critiques of autonomy and self-representation

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

Publication date (Print): Spring 2017

Journal: Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

Publisher: Pluto Journals

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Abstract

This article introduces the second of a two-part Special Issue of this journal on the precariousness of knowledge workers. It aims to explore the ambivalences and liminal relations among autonomy, identification and task orientation, which – for knowledge workers – represent both a source of self-realisation and a generator of multiple and distinctive forms of precariousness. In particular, we focus on the forms and critiques of autonomy and self-representation that, in knowledge societies, extend far beyond the fact of being a self-employed worker. We argue that knowledge work is in fact sustained by devices of subjectivity which derive their power from being self-constructed and which provide tools for managing precarious lives.

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): Spring 2017

Volume: 11

Issue: 1

Pages: 1-9

Article

Publisher ID: workorgalaboglob.11.1.0001

DOI: 10.13169/workorgalaboglob.11.1.0001

SO-VID: 5ecd90f1-08c0-4bd2-b398-bb30fa09420f

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All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

History

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

References

Armano, A. & Murgia, A. (2017) ‘Hybrid areas of work in Italy. Hypotheses to interpret the transformations of precariousness and subjectivity’ in E. Armano, A. Bove & A. Murgia (eds) Mapping Precariousness, Labour Insecurity and Uncertain Livelihoods: Subjectivities and Resistance , London: Routledge: 59–71.
Armano, E. & Murgia, A. (2013) ‘The precariousnesses of young knowledge workers: A subject-oriented approach’, Global Discourse , 3 (3/4): 486–501.
Arthur, M.B. & Rousseau, D.M. (1996) The Boundaryless Career: A New Employment Principle for a New Organisational Era , New York: Oxford University Press.
Beck, U. (2000) The Brave New World of Work , Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bologna, S. (2015) Knowledge Workers. Dall'operaio massa al freelance , Trieste: Asterios.
Bologna, S. & Fumagalli, A. (1997) Il lavoro autonomo di seconda generazione. Scenari del postfordismo in Italia , Milano: Feltrinelli.
Boltanski, L. & Chiappello, E. (1999) Le nouvel esprit du capitalisme , Paris: Gallimard.
Chesnais, F. (2000) ‘Mondialisation: le capital rentier aux commandes’, Les Temps Modernes , janvier-février: 607.
Cohen, L. & Mallon, M. (1999) ‘The transition from organisational employment to portfolio working: Perceptions of boundarylessness’, Work, Employment and Society , 13 (2): 329–52.
Defoe, D. (1697) An Essay upon Projects , London: Tho. Cockerill.
Eurofound (2017) Working anytime, anywhere: The effects on the world of work . Avalaible at: https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/sites/default/files/ef_publication/field_ef_document/ef1658en.pdf.
Foucault, M. (2008) The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1978–1979 . Translated by Graham Burchell. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gherardi, S. & Murgia, A. (2013) ‘By hook or by crook: Temporary workers between exploration and exploitation’, Research in the Sociology of Organizations , 37: 75–103.
Gorz, A. (2001) ‘La personne devient une entreprise, Note sur le travail de production de soi’, Revue du MAUSS , 2: 61–66.
Huws, U. (2006) What will we do? The destruction of occupational identities in the knowledge-based economy. Monthly Review , 57 (8): 1–8.
Huws, U. (2010) ‘Expression and expropriation: The dialectics of autonomy and control in creative labour’, Ephemera: Theory & Politics in Organization , 10 (3–4): 504–21.
Lorey, I. (2006) ‘Governmentality and self-precarization: On the normalization of cultural producers’, Transversal . Accessed July, 27, 2016 from http://eipcp.net/transversal/1106/lorey/en.
Lorey, I. (2015) State of Insecurity: Government of the Precarious . Translation by A. Derieg. London/New York: Verso.
Lovink, G.W. & Rossiter, N. (2007) MyCreativity Reader: A Critique of Creative Industries , Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures.
Maestripieri, L. (2014) ‘Les jeunes consultants en management entre précarité et ambition’, Recherches Antropologiques et Sociales , 45 (2): 127–47.
Murgia, A. (2016) ‘ERC Starting Grant Project Prosal’, SHARE — Seizing the Hybrid Areas of Work by Re-Presenting Self-Employment . Unpublished work.
Murgia, A., Maestripieri, L. & Armano, E. (2016) ‘The precariousness of knowledge workers: Hybridisation, self-employment and subjectification’, Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation , 10 (2): 1–8.
Ross, A. (2007) ‘Nice work if you can get it: The mercurial career of creative industries policy’, Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation , 1 (1): 13–30.
Sennett, R. (1999) The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism , New York: W.W. Norton.
Sproull, L. & Kiesler, S. (1991) Connections: New Ways of Working in the Networked Organization , Cambridge: MIT Press.
Thomson, E.P. (1967) ‘Time, work-discipline and industrial capitalism’, Past and Present , 38: 56–97.
Zarifian, F. (2009) Le travail et la compétence: entre puissance et contrôle , Paris: PUF.

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Armano, A. & Murgia, A. (2017) ‘Hybrid areas of work in Italy. Hypotheses to interpret the transformations of precariousness and subjectivity’ in E. Armano, A. Bove & A. Murgia (eds) Mapping Precariousness, Labour Insecurity and Uncertain Livelihoods: Subjectivities and Resistance , London: Routledge: 59–71.

[2] Armano, E. & Murgia, A. (2013) ‘The precariousnesses of young knowledge workers: A subject-oriented approach’, Global Discourse , 3 (3/4): 486–501.

[3] Arthur, M.B. & Rousseau, D.M. (1996) The Boundaryless Career: A New Employment Principle for a New Organisational Era , New York: Oxford University Press.

[4] Beck, U. (2000) The Brave New World of Work , Cambridge: Polity Press.

[5] Bologna, S. (2015) Knowledge Workers. Dall'operaio massa al freelance , Trieste: Asterios.

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

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

[8] Chesnais, F. (2000) ‘Mondialisation: le capital rentier aux commandes’, Les Temps Modernes , janvier-février: 607.

[9] Cohen, L. & Mallon, M. (1999) ‘The transition from organisational employment to portfolio working: Perceptions of boundarylessness’, Work, Employment and Society , 13 (2): 329–52.

[10] Defoe, D. (1697) An Essay upon Projects , London: Tho. Cockerill.

[11] Eurofound (2017) Working anytime, anywhere: The effects on the world of work . Avalaible at: https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/sites/default/files/ef_publication/field_ef_document/ef1658en.pdf.

[12] Foucault, M. (2008) The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1978–1979 . Translated by Graham Burchell. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

[13] Gherardi, S. & Murgia, A. (2013) ‘By hook or by crook: Temporary workers between exploration and exploitation’, Research in the Sociology of Organizations , 37: 75–103.

[14] Gorz, A. (2001) ‘La personne devient une entreprise, Note sur le travail de production de soi’, Revue du MAUSS , 2: 61–66.

[15] Huws, U. (2006) What will we do? The destruction of occupational identities in the knowledge-based economy. Monthly Review , 57 (8): 1–8.

[16] Huws, U. (2010) ‘Expression and expropriation: The dialectics of autonomy and control in creative labour’, Ephemera: Theory & Politics in Organization , 10 (3–4): 504–21.

[17] Lorey, I. (2006) ‘Governmentality and self-precarization: On the normalization of cultural producers’, Transversal . Accessed July, 27, 2016 from http://eipcp.net/transversal/1106/lorey/en.

[18] Lorey, I. (2015) State of Insecurity: Government of the Precarious . Translation by A. Derieg. London/New York: Verso.

[19] Lovink, G.W. & Rossiter, N. (2007) MyCreativity Reader: A Critique of Creative Industries , Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures.

[20] Maestripieri, L. (2014) ‘Les jeunes consultants en management entre précarité et ambition’, Recherches Antropologiques et Sociales , 45 (2): 127–47.

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

[22] Murgia, A., Maestripieri, L. & Armano, E. (2016) ‘The precariousness of knowledge workers: Hybridisation, self-employment and subjectification’, Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation , 10 (2): 1–8.

[23] Ross, A. (2007) ‘Nice work if you can get it: The mercurial career of creative industries policy’, Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation , 1 (1): 13–30.

[24] Sennett, R. (1999) The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism , New York: W.W. Norton.

[25] Sproull, L. & Kiesler, S. (1991) Connections: New Ways of Working in the Networked Organization , Cambridge: MIT Press.

[26] Thomson, E.P. (1967) ‘Time, work-discipline and industrial capitalism’, Past and Present , 38: 56–97.

[27] Zarifian, F. (2009) Le travail et la compétence: entre puissance et contrôle , Paris: PUF.