Periodic Reporting for period 5 - SHARE (Seizing the Hybrid Areas of work by Re-presenting self-Employment)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2023-03-01 do 2023-11-30
SHARE is a transdisciplinary and multi-method study of the hybrid areas of work. It takes the case of solo self-employed (SSE) workers, which is an emblematic category because it undermines the classical employment/self-employment opposition. Solo self-employment is differently regulated by national labour laws; and labour force surveys are not currently able to provide a clear picture of the phenomenon. In terms of sectors, it concerns both high- and low-skilled jobs, as well as those performed through digital labour platforms.
The study involves two main phases of data collection. The first is carried out in 6 EU countries: France, Germany, Italy, Slovakia, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. A multi-sited and cross-national ethnography was combined with a comparative labour law perspective and a comparative quantitative study. In the second phase, the focus shifted from cross-national comparison to the broader European context.
SHARE aimed to explore:
- How national and EU statistics illustrate the world of solo self-employment.
- How solo self-employment is regulated in labour laws at national and supranational levels.
- How forms of collective representation are articulated at national and EU level.
The study involves two main phases of data collection. The first is carried out in 6 EU countries: France, Germany, Italy, Slovakia, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. A multi-sited and cross-national ethnography was combined with a comparative labour law perspective and a comparative quantitative study. In the second phase, the focus shifted from cross-national comparison to the broader European context.
SHARE aimed to explore:
- How national and EU statistics illustrate the world of solo self-employment.
- How solo self-employment is regulated in labour laws at national and supranational levels.
- How forms of collective representation are articulated at national and EU level.
WP1: Cross-national analysis (DE, FR, NL, IT, UK, SK)
The legal analysis was conducted mainly by Pierluigi Digennaro, who studied how subordinate employment and self-employment are classified in the 6 EU countries. In SK and NL there is a clear-cut dividing line between the contract of employment and forms of self-employment. DE and UK crafted a tertium genus that aims to cover with some guarantees economically dependent SSE. FR and IT extended the scope of labour law over categories of formally SSE workers who show vulnerability. Welfare systems also tend to expand at least some benefits over employment, but this sphere presents its specific issues.
The statistical analysis was conducted mainly by Rossella Bozzon, who used aggregate public data to describe trends in self-employment across the 6 countries in the last 15 years. The SSE are variously distributed in Europe, but all countries showed a growth among women, late career, and migrant workers. Moreover, the relationship between subjective well-being, career prospects, and emerging work arrangements (e.g. dependent and involuntary self-employment or hybrid entrepreneurship) were analysed.
The first cross-national ethnography was conducted in 2018-2019 in the 6 countries within unions, employer organisations, freelancer associations and cooperatives, and auto-organised groups by Mathilde Mondon-Navazo, Paolo Borghi, and Petr Mezihorák. Participant observation of a wide range of activities (formal and informal meetings, demonstrations, and public events), as well as in-depth interviews and desk analysis were carried out.
WPs 2-7: Qualitative case studies
Andrea Bottalico, Valeria Piro, and Alina Dambrosio Clementelli joint the team of ethnographers in 2020-2023. After having mapped the heterogeneous range of collective actors trying to organise the SSE in 2018-2019, the second ethnographic fieldwork was carried out in 2020-2022:
- FR: Syndicat National des Artistes Plasticien·nes (SNAP-CGT), self-employed association FNAE, the activist group CLAP mobilising food-delivery platform workers.
- DE: unions ver.di Selbstständige and ver.di art and culture, freelance association VGSD, and auto-organised group of migrant cleaning platform workers.
- IT: union NIDIL-CGIL, freelance association RedActa, activist group Deliverance Milano mobilising food-delivery platform workers.
- SK: union SŽZ, YEAS mobile app for the self-employed, groups of workers who decided to sue their employer because they were forced to work as bogus self-employed.
- NL: union Kunstenbond, freelance association Orde, and auto-organised group Dancers’ Council.
- UK: unions Equity and Community, self-employed association IPSE, and independent union IWGB mainly focused on platform workers.
Our findings showed that a key element for mobilising the SSE was the ability to combine innovation and conflict, as well as an institutional approach and a more informal and unconventional one.
WP8: EU in-depth study on classifying, measuring and representing the SSE
- The legal analysis showed the continuity between neoliberal schools that had a role in making the EU legal order and the concepts of 'working activity' and 'undertaking' elaborated by the EU Court of Justice. The final version of the EU Commission guidelines on the application of the Union competition law on collective agreements by SSE and three versions of the EU directive on platform work released by the Commission, the Council, and the Parliament were also analysed.
- The statistical analysis assessed how the methodologies developed by ILO and EU labour statistics are re-defining the representation of the borders between employment and self-employment. Using data from EWCS, EWCTS, and the 2017 EU-LFS ad hoc module, we tested how different measures of economic and operational dependency, and the conditions of the involuntary self-employed and multi-job holders, affect subjective well-being, job satisfaction, and job perspectives.
- The qualitative analysis, mainly conducted by Francesco Bagnardi, focused on the following EU organisations: ETUC, Uni Global, CECOP, EFIP and the network organising the EU Freelancers Week, and the coalition of platform workers' unions and activist groups. The research showed the ability to build novel alliances between different collective actors at transnational level.
DISSEMINATION AND COMMUNICATION
- For an academic audience, in national and international conferences, and in the final events of the project.
- For the civil society, in events organised by the organisations studied.
- For the research participants, in workshops and in the final events of the project.
- For the wider audience, through events addressed to a general public and the SHARE website.
The legal analysis was conducted mainly by Pierluigi Digennaro, who studied how subordinate employment and self-employment are classified in the 6 EU countries. In SK and NL there is a clear-cut dividing line between the contract of employment and forms of self-employment. DE and UK crafted a tertium genus that aims to cover with some guarantees economically dependent SSE. FR and IT extended the scope of labour law over categories of formally SSE workers who show vulnerability. Welfare systems also tend to expand at least some benefits over employment, but this sphere presents its specific issues.
The statistical analysis was conducted mainly by Rossella Bozzon, who used aggregate public data to describe trends in self-employment across the 6 countries in the last 15 years. The SSE are variously distributed in Europe, but all countries showed a growth among women, late career, and migrant workers. Moreover, the relationship between subjective well-being, career prospects, and emerging work arrangements (e.g. dependent and involuntary self-employment or hybrid entrepreneurship) were analysed.
The first cross-national ethnography was conducted in 2018-2019 in the 6 countries within unions, employer organisations, freelancer associations and cooperatives, and auto-organised groups by Mathilde Mondon-Navazo, Paolo Borghi, and Petr Mezihorák. Participant observation of a wide range of activities (formal and informal meetings, demonstrations, and public events), as well as in-depth interviews and desk analysis were carried out.
WPs 2-7: Qualitative case studies
Andrea Bottalico, Valeria Piro, and Alina Dambrosio Clementelli joint the team of ethnographers in 2020-2023. After having mapped the heterogeneous range of collective actors trying to organise the SSE in 2018-2019, the second ethnographic fieldwork was carried out in 2020-2022:
- FR: Syndicat National des Artistes Plasticien·nes (SNAP-CGT), self-employed association FNAE, the activist group CLAP mobilising food-delivery platform workers.
- DE: unions ver.di Selbstständige and ver.di art and culture, freelance association VGSD, and auto-organised group of migrant cleaning platform workers.
- IT: union NIDIL-CGIL, freelance association RedActa, activist group Deliverance Milano mobilising food-delivery platform workers.
- SK: union SŽZ, YEAS mobile app for the self-employed, groups of workers who decided to sue their employer because they were forced to work as bogus self-employed.
- NL: union Kunstenbond, freelance association Orde, and auto-organised group Dancers’ Council.
- UK: unions Equity and Community, self-employed association IPSE, and independent union IWGB mainly focused on platform workers.
Our findings showed that a key element for mobilising the SSE was the ability to combine innovation and conflict, as well as an institutional approach and a more informal and unconventional one.
WP8: EU in-depth study on classifying, measuring and representing the SSE
- The legal analysis showed the continuity between neoliberal schools that had a role in making the EU legal order and the concepts of 'working activity' and 'undertaking' elaborated by the EU Court of Justice. The final version of the EU Commission guidelines on the application of the Union competition law on collective agreements by SSE and three versions of the EU directive on platform work released by the Commission, the Council, and the Parliament were also analysed.
- The statistical analysis assessed how the methodologies developed by ILO and EU labour statistics are re-defining the representation of the borders between employment and self-employment. Using data from EWCS, EWCTS, and the 2017 EU-LFS ad hoc module, we tested how different measures of economic and operational dependency, and the conditions of the involuntary self-employed and multi-job holders, affect subjective well-being, job satisfaction, and job perspectives.
- The qualitative analysis, mainly conducted by Francesco Bagnardi, focused on the following EU organisations: ETUC, Uni Global, CECOP, EFIP and the network organising the EU Freelancers Week, and the coalition of platform workers' unions and activist groups. The research showed the ability to build novel alliances between different collective actors at transnational level.
DISSEMINATION AND COMMUNICATION
- For an academic audience, in national and international conferences, and in the final events of the project.
- For the civil society, in events organised by the organisations studied.
- For the research participants, in workshops and in the final events of the project.
- For the wider audience, through events addressed to a general public and the SHARE website.
From a theoretical perspective, we advanced the debate on solo self-employment, which is fragmented into different fields of study and methodological approaches. To fill this gap, by adopting different methods, SHARE opened a conversation between labour law, employment and industrial relations, organisation and social movement studies. In particular, by keeping together structural conditions and human agency, we analysed how subjects are affected by social norms and institutions, but also how they can shape them in turn, especially through collective organising. Leveraging the concept of hybrid, discussed especially in postcolonial and posthuman studies, we challenged the traditional categories developed by difference with the Fordist model, such as ‘non-standard’ or ‘a-typical.’ Therefore, we did not use the concept of ‘hybrid’ to identify a third area that would resolve the tensions between employment and self-employment, but rather to problematise its boundaries. In particular, in the SHARE final volume, out in 2025, I propose to introduce the concept of hybrid as a method and an epistemological positioning to avoid static representations and to challenge to hierarchy implicit in an identified dichotomy.
Another major impact concerned the collaboration with the studied organisations and the facilitation of an inter-organisational dialogue on the collective representation and organising of SSE workers.
Another major impact concerned the collaboration with the studied organisations and the facilitation of an inter-organisational dialogue on the collective representation and organising of SSE workers.