engleski

Flexible work, flexible networks? The case of self- employed creative professionals in Croatia

This article compares compositional and structural properties of personal networks among self- employed creative workers and employees. Although the networking in the creative sector has been the subject of a number of studies, little research has focused on the relationship between different types of work and employment and network patterns. The empirical research has been undertaken using egocentric network analysis and the data was collected in the form of structured interviews with 168 creative workers from Croatia. The results demonstrate that self-employed creative workers have smaller networks with a larger proportion of strong ties. However, when the network structure is considered, self-employed individuals have less dense networks with more structural holes. The concept of strategic networking has been introduced in order to describe how self-employed creative workers balance between bonding and bridging ties in order to ensure reliable sources of social support and to maintain network diversity.

creative labour; network analysis; personal networks; self-employment; social capital.

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