SELF-EMPLOYED COLLECTIVE REPRESENTATION Strategies in emerging fields: a comparative perspective on Italy and Germany Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) im Fach Soziologie eingereicht am 13 September 2018 verteidigt am 5 November 2018 an der Kultur-, Sozial- und Bildungswissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin von Paolo Borghi Präsidentin der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. Sabine Kunst Dekanin der Kultur-, Sozial- und Bildungswissenschaftlichen Fakultät Prof. Dr. Christian Kassung Gutachterin/Gutachter: 1. Prof. Terenzio Roberto Mingione 2. Prof. Karin Lohr SCUOLA DI DOTTORATO UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI MILANO-BICOCCA Dipartimento di / Department of SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL RESEARCH Dottorato di Ricerca in / PhD program URBEUR-QUASI CITTÀ E SOCIETÀ DELL’INFORMAZIONE Ciclo / Cycle XXIX TITOLO TESI / THESIS TITLE SELF-EMPLOYED COLLECTIVE REPRESENTATION Strategies in emerging fields: a comparative perspective on Italy and Germany Cognome / Surname BORGHI Nome / Name PAOLO Matricola / Registration number 070803 Tutore / Tutor: MINGIONE TERENZIO ROBERTO Cotutore / Co-tutor: LOHR KARIN Coordinatore / Coordinator: BIFULCO LAVINIA ANNO ACCADEMICO / ACADEMIC YEAR 2017/2018 2 Table of contents 1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 6 2 Theoretical approach: field theory and organisational cultures .................................... 11 2.1 What is a field? Three leading and complementary approaches ............................ 14 2.1.1 Bourdieu’s concept of field .............................................................................. 14 2.1.2 Organisational field and isomorphism from Powell and DiMaggio’s perspective ......................................................................................................................... 22 2.1.3 The Strategic Action Fields, according to Fligstein and McAdam’s theory ...... 23 2.2 Organisations: functional approach, cultures, metaphors and sense making ........ 38 2.2.1 Czarniawska’s critical approach to Etzioni and Perrow’s organisational studies .......................................................................................................................... 39 2.2.2 Metaphors: an essential but tricky way to describe organisations. Organisations as digital machines .......................................................................................................... 43 2.2.3 Weick’s sense-making approach ...................................................................... 47 2.3 Representation theories and perspectives .............................................................. 49 2.4 A brief summary of the theoretical approach ......................................................... 52 3 Research design and methodology ................................................................................. 54 3.1 Research hypothesis, goals and questions .............................................................. 54 3.2 Research phases at a glance and timeline ............................................................... 55 3.3 Research design and methodology in detail ........................................................... 59 4 Fieldwork: from the mapping to the analysis ................................................................. 69 4.1 Introduction to the fieldwork .................................................................................. 69 4.2 The mapping and selection process. How to deal with the various blurred boundaries of working arrangements, professions, and organisations ............................. 69 4.2.1 The mapping phase .......................................................................................... 76 4.2.2 Selection process: general criteria and selected organisations ....................... 78 3 4.3 The creation of new groups dedicated to independent and non-standard professionals ....................................................................................................................... 86 4.3.1 Italy: the role of personal biographies and political engagement in new organisations and in organisational change ................................................................... 88 4.3.2 Germany: multiplicity and settled fragmentation. Towards a redistribution of interests? ......................................................................................................................... 98 4.3.3 Emerging strategic action fields: similarities and differences between Italy and Germany ........................................................................................................................ 107 4.4 Shapes, structures, rules, resources ...................................................................... 117 4.4.1 Italy: light, flexible structures, weak ties and limited resources. Potentialities and limits. ...................................................................................................................... 119 4.4.2 Germany: professionalisation and new frontiers of self-employed representation .............................................................................................................. 135 4.4.3 A comparative perspective on structures, resources, and access rules ........ 150 4.5 Representation strategies ..................................................................................... 154 4.5.1 Italy: a focus on three case studies: CGIL, ACTA and SMart .......................... 158 4.5.2 Germany. Reframing representation through organisational innovation ..... 178 4.5.3 A comparative perspective on representation strategies ............................. 192 4.5.4 Preliminary conclusions on representation strategies: hybridisation and progressive innovation .................................................................................................. 213 4.6 The external environment: allies, competitors, public institutions ...................... 215 4.6.1 Allies and competitors: the emerging field of self-employed representation in Italy ........................................................................................................................ 215 4.6.2 Breaking the wall between organisations: mistrust, dialogue attempts and opportunities in Germany ............................................................................................. 231 4.7 Urban and territorial dimension ............................................................................ 239 4.7.1 Urban dimension, urban economies and the role of the public administration. Why they are relevant for self-employed professionals and their organisations ........ 241 4 4.7.2 The ambiguous role of the coworking spaces: from propeller of the market to autonomous political spaces and labour culture .......................................................... 250 5 Conclusions ................................................................................................................... 257 References ............................................................................................................................ 276 Addendum ............................................................................................................................ 291 ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................................... 291 ZUSAMMENFASSUNG ....................................................................................................... 292 Total employment, self-employment, Solo Self-Employment (Solo SE), I-Pros in the European Union, Italy, Germany ...................................................................................... 293 Data classification system ................................................................................................. 294 Self-employment and non-standard workers: varieties of definitions ............................ 297 Summary table of primary documents ............................................................................. 307 Outline of semi-structured interviews ............................................................................. 308 DOI .................................................................................................................................... 310 5 1 Introduction The evolution of new forms of employment (Mandl, Curtarelli, Riso, Vargas, & Georgiannis, 2015) and, within this framework, the transformation of self-employment in Europe (Pedersini & Coletto, 2010) is rapid and, to a certain extent, uncontrolled. Its composition is, in fact, undergoing a process of change due to the growth of the service sector and the significant increase of the solo self-employed (Eurofound, 2017). Moreover, if we focus on the specific sub-group of independent professionals (Rapelli, 2012), we can notice that they are progressively expanding their presence in many countries (Leighton, 2014; Leighton & Brown, 2013; Rapelli, 2012) also with respect to the overall group of the self-employed (Borghi, Mori, & Semenza, 2018). The growth of I-Pros1, is evident both in relation to self- employment and solo self-employment. Graph. 1 Self-employed (SE)/Total Employment (TE), Solo SE/TE, I-Pros/SE, I-Pros/Self-Employed, I-Pros/Solo SE in Europe. 2008-20162 45% 41,65% 40,01% 41,09% 38,09% 38,88% 40% 37,13% 35,15% 35,84% 33,83% 35% 29,35% 29,86% 27,14% 27,66%