Flexible gig work shifts organizational risks onto individual workers

Evidence

The gendered social media activities I track in the book are one facet of a cultural economy marked by widespread independence. Indeed, freelancers, contract hires, and interns constitute a swelling class of workers in a “gig economy,” an “on-demand economy,” or perhaps least euphemistically, a “1099 economy.” Though many of these individuals pursue the much-hyped ideals of flexibility and autonomy, the rapid growth of independent employment is symptomatic of what scholars and labor advocates understand as a “political economy of insecurity.” That is, as neoliberal ideologies and practices shift organizational risks and responsibilities onto individual citizens, workers must shoulder the burden for training, healthcare, and other benefits. — Brooke Erin Duffy, (Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love, 39

Categorization

• DEFINE: Names the ‘1099 economy’ and the ‘political economy of insecurity’ as the analytical frame for independent work.
• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source
• XREF: connects to: Slash-career workers pursue passion projects chiefly for income in uncertain labor markets — Brooke Erin Duffy, (Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love:…, 14; Independent-work boosters frame gig careers as voluntary self-fulfillment — Brooke Erin Duffy, (Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love:…, 508; Flexible capital’s ephemerality atomizes workers and enables individualism — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 1049 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Flexible capital’s ephemerality atomizes workers and enables individualism #expands (0.75) — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 1049
• Self-branding shifts economic risk onto workers while demanding constant unpaid labor #corroborates (0.75) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 524
• Flexibility means instantly adapting labor and machinery to market demand #expands (0.72) — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 154
• Worker flexibility often functions as a euphemism for precarity #complicates (0.70) — Brooke Erin Duffy, (Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love, 571
• 401(k)s shift retirement risk and funding burden from employer to employee #exemplifies (0.70)