Invisible Creativity? Highlighting the Hidden Impact of Freelancing in London's Creative Industries

Socio‐economic profile and working conditions of freelancers in co‐working spaces and work collectives: evidence from the design sector in Greece

“…On the other hand, O'Connor () suggests that the individual worker ‘doing it for oneself’ is part of a wider cultural shift in the notion of labour away from routine and line management (also cited in Mould et al . ). However, freelancing is highly problematic, as it is associated with high individual risks and can be difficult to sustain (Mitchel 2005; Gill and Pratt ).…”

Transnational freelancing: Ephemeral creative projects and mobility in the music recording industry

“…There has been relatively little recognition within economic geography of the importance of freelance labour to the knowledge economy, due to the continued centrality of the 'firm' within the sub-discipline (Maskell, 2001;Taylor and Asheim, 2001;Yeung, 2003). This neglect is despite these types of freelance projects being increasingly common, and almost universal in many cultural and media industries (see , Cook et al, 2011;Davenport, 2006;Mould et al, 2014;Saundry and Nolan, 1998;Storey et al, 2005;Ursell, 2000), which have undercut the integrity of the firm as key unit of collective commercial agency (Grabher, 2002a). Indeed, it is the economic geography literature on these industries that one has to look to find critical engagement with issues around freelance labour; see, Pratt (2000) and Christopherson (2002) on new media; Coe (2000) on the indigenous film industry in Vancouver; Vinodrai (2006) In this paper, we begin to address this gap in the literature by presenting the first geographical analysis of transnational freelance mobilities in the creative industries.…”

“…More generally there is a dearth of research 4 focusing on the nature and purpose of mobility in project-based industries where projects are ephemeral in nature and carried out mainly in the external 'market' of the firm, that is to say, outside of the firm and involving freelance labour who may be self-employed or part of 'micro-businesses' (Mould et al, 2014). There has been relatively little recognition within economic geography of the importance of freelance labour to the knowledge economy, due to the continued centrality of the 'firm' within the sub-discipline (Maskell, 2001;Taylor and Asheim, 2001;Yeung, 2003).…”

“…For example, in a study of new media, Christopherson (2002Christopherson ( : 2011 highlights how media workers, "overwhelmingly depend on personal networks to make employment matches. As such the ability of freelancers to build and maintain these networks is critical to their performance as competitive economic agents (Mould et al, 2014). Freelancers are highly sensitive to market opportunities, and develop good working relations with clients by, "tailoring their exchanges and styles" to individual demand (Storey et al, 2005(Storey et al, : 1052.…”

“…As a basic definition, one can consider a freelancer as an individual who, "works on a contractual or temporary basis offering their skills, knowledge and/or expertise to others (people, firms or governments) looking to outsource (and/or add value to) a particular labour cost" (Mould et al, 2014(Mould et al, : 2438(Mould et al, -2442. Thus in freelance work a particular kind of relationship exists between employee and employer, in which employers no longer accept responsibility for the employment and development of the workforce, but rather have a relationship with the employee that is transactional, contractual and short-term (du Gay et al, 1996), reflecting a shift from organizational to market-based employment relationships (Storey et al, 2005).…”