The Changing Face of Work Precarity: Dependent self-employed professionals and collective response to work precarity

The present study explores how professional workers under the arrangement of dependent self-employment experience and respond to work precarity. Drawing on interviews of 53 indie and in-house PDs, I found that the arrangement of dependent self-employment translated into work precarity in three interrelated spheres of work: i) in labor markets, ii) in production processes and iii) in creative communities. Further analysis of the interviews shows that indie PDs have developed a strong professional identity through the alter casting of in-house PDs which highlights the creative and entrepreneurial nature of their work. The cognitive practice of alter casting allows indie PDs to extract positive meanings from their precarious employment arrangement and distinguish themselves from in-house PDs at the major broadcasters. In turn, this professional identity fueled their desire to self-organize in response to the perceived threats to their professional community. Indie PDs opted for a professional association, rather than a labor union, as a form of collective representation to promote social recognition of their professional identity. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.