ABSTRACT

Existing research on freelance workers has highlighted its distinctiveness in terms of vocation, precariousness, work-life boundaries, professional autonomy and co-working. However, there is a need to better understand the lived experience of freelance working and its impact on practitioners compared to traditional employment. Using Arendt’s (1958. The Human Condition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press) conceptualisation of human activities, I analyse a case study of freelancers through notions of work, labour and action in order to conceptualise distinctive features of freelance work experience. This analysis brings into focus how freelance workers manufacture social arrangements and represent their output and work persona within their respective marketplace, whilst involved in and reliant on non-instrumental forms of sociality. Arendt’s concepts make it possible to conceptualise tensions and contradictions within the underlying ends of everyday freelance activities, and how this affects freelancers on an experiential level.

摘要

现有对自由职业者的研究突出了其在职业、不稳定、工作与生活的界限、职业自主性和合作方面的独特性。然而，与传统就业相比，需要更好地了解自由职业者的生活经历及其对从业者的影响。使用 Arendt (1958. The Human Condition . Chicago: University of Chicago Press) 对人类活动的概念化，我通过工作、劳动和行动的概念分析了自由职业者的案例研究以概念化自由职业者工作经验的独特特征。该分析重点关注自由职业者如何在各自的市场中制造社会安排并代表他们的产出和工作角色，同时参与和依赖非工具形式的社会性。阿伦特的概念使人们有可能将日常自由职业活动的潜在目的内的紧张和矛盾概念化，以及这如何在体验层面上影响自由职业者。