Individual Needs Versus Collective Interests: Network Dynamics in the Freelance Editorial Association

Abstract

The Freelance Editorial Association, founded in the 1980s, was an organization of editorial professionals working on contract. Through its 15 years of operation, the organization developed a model of collective representation and sought to improve employment practices and work relations for these contingent workers. Expanding through occupational networks, the association established a program of services and a set of principles for advocacy, which it applied on behalf of members seeking resolution of disputes with clients. The organization, however, proved unsustainable. Resource constraints, labor market structures, and the underlying dynamics of occupational networks, which operated in the interests of clients as well as freelancers, undermined its model. Although the association addressed many individual needs, it generated little leverage toward promoting collective interests. Its efforts, however, offer caveats for the development of new models of collective representation.

Representing Solo Self-Employed Workers: The Strengthening of Relations between Traditional and New Collective Actors in Industrial Relations

“…Focusing on the specific category of SSE, Jansen (2020) analyses various types of organisations representing them, such as trade unions, employer organisations and new freelancer associations, but his interest is mainly in explaining differences in the patterns of membership. Osnowitz (2007), in her very rich text about a freelancers’ association, reaches the conclusion that the proliferation of non-standard work calls for collaboration across organisations, but she does not develop this finding further as it is the outcome of her grounded investigation, including the failure of the establishment of these relations. Wynn (2015) also suggests studying alternative forms of SSE representation outside of unions, while at the same time emphasising that this is outside the scope of his study, mainly focused on trade unions.…”