At least I have this freedom : Subjectivity and self-precarization among digital freelancers in the Swedish cultural industries

Abstract

Cultural industries are currently being transformed by processes of platformization and precarization. Despite being among the sectors where platformization has already had the most pronounced effects, there remains a lack of research on cultural work as a prototypical example of so-called gig work. This dissertation analyzes the working experiences of what I call digital freelancers — solo self-employed cultural workers who extensively use digital platforms to find and carry out work on a task and piece basis as well as to manage their careers in contexts of precarity.

The main aim of the thesis is to contribute to the understanding of how digital freelancers are formed as a flexible and entrepreneurial workforce, at the intersection of the platform economy imposing piece-based and precarious working arrangements, and of freelancers’ desires for meaningful, autonomous, and creative work. The study uses a digital ethnographic approach that combines interviews with digital freelancers and digital observations of the platforms that they frequent in order to find work, market themselves, network, and sustain their careers. Theoretically, I draw on Foucauldian theories of governmentality and subjectivation, and Marxian theories of immaterial and affective labor to understand the formation of digital freelance subjects. In particular, I develop the sociological understanding of the form of governmentality which Isabell Lorey has called self-precarization, by anchoring it in the lived experiences and biographies of digital freelancers in the context of the Swedish welfare state.

The study shows how the platform economy contributes to a fragmentation of both labor practices and worker subjectivities. I demonstrate how the platformization of cultural work must be understood in wider terms than what is common in the sociological literature on gig work, where much emphasis is on labor platforms. Instead, I introduce the concept of patchworking to analyze how digital freelancers manage platform precarity by patching together incomes from several types of platforms. I also show how the platform economy leads to a proliferation of unpaid labor, both in terms of taking commissions with little or no compensation and doing uncompensated, reproductive tasks needed to sustain a platform career. I find that digital freelancers negotiate and attach different meanings to unpaid work, often legitimizing it as an investment in their future, while also critiquing or distinguishing themselves from forms they think are unfair or exploitative. Furthermore, I analyze the self-branding practices of digital freelancers and identify different imperatives by which they are encouraged to put their subjectivities to market as commodities or assets. I show why it is necessary to understand self-branding as a multi-platformed practice that functions as an individualized solution for dealing with precarity that also orients freelancers as productive subjects that contribute to the business models of platform companies. Finally, I argue for the importance of studying precarization as a productive process entangled with the formation of subjectivity. I identify several tensions in how my respondents form their professional subjectivities, through which they often normalize and legitimize individual risk and insecurity, while also articulating critique and resistance against it. By focusing on freelancers’ own accounts of how they identify with their work and grapple with the tensions involved, I bring out the nuances of how digital freelancers negotiate insecurity and uncertainty as a new normal.

Abstract (Swedish)

Framväxten av digitala plattformar håller för närvarande på att förändra hur kulturarbete förmedlas och utförs. Trots detta finns det en brist på forskning, inte minst i en svensk kontext, som studerar kulturarbete som ett typexempel på det som kommit att kallas gigarbete. Den här avhandlingen analyserar frilansande kulturarbetares erfarenheter av att navigera den digitala plattformsekonomin för att försörja sig. Avhandlingens huvudsakliga syfte är att förstå hur plattformar idag formar digitala kulturarbetare som arbetskraft och socialiserar dem till en prekär arbetsmarknad. Utifrån en metodologisk ansats som kombinerar djupintervjuer med digital etnografi lyfter avhandlingen fram kulturarbetares egna praktiker och berättelser om hur de både identifierar sig med sitt arbete och brottas med dess utmaningar.

Medan många har förutspått att plattformsekonomin skulle demokratisera kulturproduktion och göra det enklare för fler att nå ut med och försörja sig på kreativt arbete, analyserar denna avhandling kritiskt hur plattformar också leder till ökad global konkurrens, prisdumpning, och utsuddade gränser mellan arbete och fritid. Avhandlingen argumenterar för vikten av etnografiska perspektiv på hur frilansande kulturarbetare använder och kombinerar en rad olika plattformstyper för olika syften, för att på så vis skydda sig från otrygghet och ovisshet. Genom ett teoretiskt fokus på subjektivitet och prekarisering bidrar avhandlingen vidare med nya perspektiv på hur digitala plattformar och algoritmer förändrar inte bara hur vi hittar och utför arbete, utan också hur vi relaterar till oss själva. Avhandlingen analyserar och lyfter fram de spänningar som uppstår i mötet mellan å ena sidan en osäker digital arbetsmarknad som normaliserar fragmentering, obetalt arbete och själv-kommodifiering, och å andra sidan frilansande kulturarbetares egna strävan efter ett meningsfullt, flexibelt och kreativt arbetsliv.

• author: Karlsson, Daniel
• supervisor: David Wästerfors; Bo Isenberg
• opponent: Professor Kärreman, Dan, Copenhagen Business School
• organization: Sociology
• publishing date: 2024-09
• type: Thesis
• publication status: published
• subject: Sociology
• keywords: digital freelancing, subjectivity, self-precarization, gig work, immaterial labor, cultural industries, creative work, platform economy, self-branding, precarity, digital governmentality, biopolitics, kulturarbete, subjektivitet, själv-prekarisering, foucault, governmentality, biopolitik, plattformsarbete, digitala plattformar, frilans, kreativt arbete, prekaritet, gigarbete
• pages: 300 pages
• defense location: Edens hörsal, Allhelgona kyrkogata 14, Lund
• defense date: 2024-10-25 10:15:00
• ISBN: 978-91-8104-174-3
• ISBN: 978-91-8104-173-6
• project: At least I have this freedom: Subjectivity and self-precarization among digital freelancers in the Swedish cultural industries
• language: English
• LU publication?: yes
• id: 4a385477-86f4-4bc8-9a3d-b1846bcbe734
• date added to LUP: 2024-09-19 16:23:58
• date last changed: 2025-06-14 11:53:27