Freelancing Expertise

Debra Osnowitz

Veröffentlicht von Cornell University Press 2010

Freelancing Expertise

Contract Professionals in the New Economy

Debra Osnowitz

In der Reihe Collection on Technology and Work

https://doi.org/10.7591/9780801460388

Übersicht
Inhalt

Über dieses Buch

Contract work is more important than ever—for better or for worse, depending on one's perspective. The security once implied by a full-time job with a stable employer is becoming rarer, thereby erasing one of the major distinctions between "freelance work" and a "steady gig." Why hang on to a regular job for the sake of security if security can no longer be assumed? Instead, contractors, hired temporarily for specific knowledge and skills, market their expertise as they move from project to project. Even though their employment is precarious, a great many consider freelancing preferable to holding a "regular" job: the control they feel over their time and careers is well worth the risks that come with relatively uncertain cash flow. Freelancing Expertise is a qualitative study of decision making, work practices, and occupational processes among writers and editors who work in print and Web communications and programmers and engineers who work in software and systems development. Debra Osnowitz conducted sixty-eight extended interviews with representatives of both groups and twelve interviews with managers and recruiters, observed four different work settings in which contractors work alongside employees, and monitored blogs and online discussions among contractors. As a result, she provides a unique and sensitive assessment of a cultural shift in occupations and organizations.Osnowitz calls for a reconfiguration of the employer/employee relationship that accepts more variation and flexibility: just as "freelancing" has, over time, taken on many traits considered characteristic of traditional career paths, so might regular jobs make themselves more appealing to today's workforce by mimicking some of the positive aspects of transactions between clients and contract workers.

Autoreninformation

OsnowitzDebra:

Debra Osnowitz is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Clark University.

Rezensionen

Matthew Bidwell:

"Osnowitz provides a thorough analysis of high-skilled contracting arrangements with a focus on how contractors experience their working lives.... The strength of this book lies in the author's rich descriptions of contractors’ experiences... paying particular attention to the way that expertise defines the lives of her informants.... She also offers a rich depiction of the ambiguities in the contractors’ roles... present [in organizations] as commercial suppliers rather than as members."

John Storey:

"The book examines the nature of freelance work from a number of angles: the relative advantages and disadvantages and the calculus made by the freelancers; the way in which they have to display their expertise (the 'performance'); their experience of marginalization when working for and on the premises of employing organizations; their utilization of networks and the way they manage their (non-organizational) careers. The book widens its lens with a reconsideration of the implications of contracting for the nature of work relations.... The book's undoubted strengths are to be found in the imaginative, open-minded and thorough-going nature of the assessments made... [and its] underlying values-driven commitment to fairness and equity in the landscape of diverse forms of work."

Vicki Smith, University of CaliforniaDavisco, author of The Good Temp:

"Freelancing Expertise is a detailed and nuanced description of important dimensions of contracting work today. Debra Osnowitz asks how contractors manage the risks that are entailed when they lack a steady employment contract. While analyzing the experiences of professional contractors in the fields of high technology and publishing, Osnowitz provides comparisons to people in similar occupations who are regular employees and people in similar temporary employment relations but in different occupations. Osnowitz's understanding of how an external labor market works is very original and cutting edge."

Stephen Sweet, Ithaca College, author of Changing Contours of Work: Jobs and Opportunities in the New Economy:

"Debra Osnowitz's compelling analysis identifies the strategies contract workers use to chart careers, the rewards unique to contract work, and the substantial personal risks involved. By contextualizing contract work in a historical perspective and through analysis of in-depth interviews, Freelancing Expertise reveals contract work to be an alternate to, and consequence of, the limited rewards obtained in traditional career jobs. This is a remarkable contribution to understandings of the new economy."

Fachgebiete

Frontmatter Öffentlich zugänglich PDF downloaden	i
Contents Öffentlich zugänglich PDF downloaden	vii
Acknowledgments Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert PDF downloaden	ix
Introduction Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert PDF downloaden	1
1. Two Occupations with Divided Labor Markets Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert PDF downloaden	24
2. Assessing Options, Making Choices Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert PDF downloaden	47
3. Performing Expertise Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert PDF downloaden	72
4. Managing Marginality Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert PDF downloaden	95
5. Collegial Networking, Occupational Control Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert PDF downloaden	120
6. Extra-Organizational Careers Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert PDF downloaden	145
7. Work Relations Reconsidered Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert PDF downloaden	168
Conclusion Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert PDF downloaden	191
Appendix: Contractors Interviewed Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert PDF downloaden	211
Notes Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert PDF downloaden	217
References Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert PDF downloaden	235
Index Erfordert eine Authentifizierung Nicht lizenziert Lizenziert PDF downloaden	253

(English)

Sprache: Englisch
Verlag: Cornell University Press
Copyrightjahr: 2010
Zielgruppe: General/trade;
Seiten
- Inhalt: 272
Schlagworte: Social Work; Anthropology

eBook

Veröffentlicht: 15. Oktober 2010
ISBN: 9780801460388