Entrepreneurship, self-employment and dependent work: blurred boundaries and lived consequences

This project addresses critical research gaps in relation to dependent self-employment – a growing but poorly defined and under-researched form of work. Current theoretical, legal and institutional frameworks are inadequate to capture its practices, consequences and implications, particularly for individuals in different social positions. Focusing on the Cultural and Creative Industries, this study examines how institutional and organizational contexts shape workers' experiences and biographies, the strategies they use to navigate dependent self-employment, and how these influence their identities and perceptions. The project contributes empirically by incorporating multi-stakeholder perspectives on this phenomenon, and theoretically by engaging with debates on precarity, employment and entrepreneurship, including gender dimensions; and by uncovering mechanisms that (re)produce inequalities and precarisation of work and providing insights for regulation and labour protection.