In search of alternatives for individualised workers: A comparative study of freelance organisations

Abstract

This article contributes to the debate on the enterprise culture, which is characterised by the celebration of risk-taking and self-realisation, which in turn also implies self-responsibilisation and atomisation of the workforce. It does so by investigating organisations created with the aim of finding alternatives for freelancers, who epitomise the processes of individualisation typical of late capitalism. The organisations studied, both companies and cooperatives, aim to enable freelancers to combine autonomy in running their business with access to labour and social rights and inclusion in a collective. Drawing on a multiple case study conducted in France and Italy, the article investigates how organisations can counteract the processes of self-responsibilisation and atomisation of the workforce by enacting principles typical of alternative organisations. This study thus provides a twofold contribution to critical organisational theory and sociological literature on the individualisation of work and feasible alternatives to it. Our findings show, first, that the enterprise culture can be challenged through alternative organising even when freelancers – a category of workers embodying the contemporary processes of individualisation – are at stake. Second, the study of these emerging organisations also contributes to the flourishing debate on alternative organisations by adding an original empirical contribution to ongoing reflections on alternatives to market capitalism.

Organizing solidarity in difference: Challenges, achievements, and emerging imaginaries

“…Efforts to represent broader categories of workers, traditionally overlooked by trade unions, have emerged over time (see Doellgast et al, 2018; Gumbrell-McCormick, 2018; Paret, 2015), but have often failed against corporate interests. At the same time, and in step with the promotion of an enterprise culture, which has led to the formation of neoliberal subjectivities and introduced market principles also into employment relations (Moisander et al, 2018; Mondon-Navazo et al, 2021), the traditional foundations of (worker) solidarity are eroding, and the world is generally experiencing declining union membership (Beck and Brook, 2020).…”

Commitment issues? Analysing the effect of preference deviation and social embeddedness on member commitment to worker cooperatives in the gig economy

“…In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, a new Jobs Act was adopted by the Italian government that further increased atypical contracts and self-employment (Fana et al, 2016). In response to these institutional changes, new worker cooperatives and other alternative organisations were set up to provide gig workers with labour rights and a shared setting to pursue their individual economic activities (Mondon-Navazo et al, 2021).…”