engleski

From Bonds to Bridges: Creative Labor, Social Networks and Self-Employment in a Post-Socialist Society

Empirical research on the relationship between self-employment and networking practices in cultural and creative industries is of great relevance to understanding the social consequences of individualized and precarious work. To explore the effect of self-employment on social networks in a society that has passed post-socialist transition, this paper is focused on the comparison between self- employed workers in the cultural and creative sector and those with permanent employment. The empirical research has been undertaken using egocentric network analysis and the data was collected in the form of structured interviews with cultural and creative workers from Zadar, a medium-sized regional center in Croatia. The results demonstrate that self-employed 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 results are interpreted and discussed with reference to the literature on creative economy and social networks.

creative labor; network analysis; self-employment; social capital; post-transitional society

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