Living with enterprise in an enterprise economy: Freelance and contract workers in the media

Abstract

Changes in organizational structures, logics and employment practices in the media industries – critically the outsourcing of labour, whereby employees become freelance workers – supply an ideal context in which to explore the extent to which, and the ways in which, ideological and structural pressures encourage workers to accept the logic and imperatives of enterprise. An important and influential body of literature identifies the ‘enterprising self ’ as a central paradigmatic concept underpinning the rationale of new, alternative, work forms and relationships. And enterprising forms or logics of organization, or of organizational employment practices and relationships are closely associated with management pressures on workers (contract freelance workers or permanent employees) to accept enterprise as a major element of their self-identities.This study of media workers contributes to the debate about the ‘enterprising self ’. Many writers have noted that workers in the enterprise economy are exposed to systemic efforts to see themselves in terms of enterprise. But relatively little work has explored how workers respond to these efforts.The findings of this study reveal the various ways in which freelance workers make sense of enterprise and how they understand themselves, and their employment experiences in terms of enterprise.

Dangerously empty? Hegemony and the construction of the Irish entrepreneur

“…Here, the figure of the 'entrepreneur' came to symbolize the new, ideal public servant who approached work from a private sector mindset that prioritizes profit and innovation (Du Gay, 1996), implicitly distracting from an emphasis on service and vocation. Among contract workers and others in precarious employment, the dominance of such a discourse posits an entrepreneurial ideal as the best way for workers to view their situations (Parker, 2007;Storey, Salaman and Platman, 2005). This can lead to a sense of failure when the individual struggles to live up to the ideal in economically uncertain times (Tretheway, 2001).…”

Creative work and affect: Social, political and fantasmatic dynamics in the labour of musicians

“…In short, it allows the worker to reframe their labour through a rationalized set of intentions, thereby replacing determinative pressures from the social context for an agential view of the self. That this tendency is not limited to musicians but is more widely the case for other freelancers is borne out by Storey et al (2005), where we can see that an ethos of enterprise is a strong normative imperative for freelancers, and moreover more widely reflected in what Du Gay (1996) has called 'enterprise culture'. Driven by a desire to be entrepreneurial, the media freelancers studied by Storey et al (2005) reproduced the discourse of enterprise even through their shortcomings; for example, by blaming the inability to obtain work on market failure rather than a hiatus in their skillset.…”

Women’s Learning in Contract Work: Practicing Contradictions in Boundaryless Conditions

“…This ambiguity leads to a shakiness and vulnerability that makes it difficult for contract workers to establish their credibility and to secure their identity. In studies of freelance media workers, Storey et al (2005) found much of their knowledge tied up with both disciplining and judging their identities while protecting these identities in experiences of rejection, loss of income and loss of mastery. Clearly, the 'knowledge' of contracted workers such as the women featured in this article is definitionally heterogeneous and difficult to categorise.…”

“…Alvesson 2001;Storey et al 2005) that proving the 'knowledge' of contract knowledge work is mostly about managing identity and impression.…”