Self-Employment in Continuity and Transformation: Between Entrepreneurship and Gig Work
Zwischen Unternehmertum und Gig-Work
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21241/Keywords:
Self-employment; Solo Self-employment; Labour Markets; Social Mobility; DigitalizationAbstract
The conventional discourse on self-employment is unsatisfactory because the heterogeneity of self-employment is neither explicitly recognized nor addressed. Interpretations usually refer to an average type of self-employment that does not exist in practice. In contrast, our paper shows that a differentiated perspective is necessary—one that incorporates both historical developments and current dynamics. The starting point of our analysis is the development of self-employment in the 20th century, particularly against the backdrop of technological advances and the steadily increasing digitalization. In the next step, we examine macro-level patterns of self-employment, thereby considering the specific types of solo self-employment, hybrid entrepreneurs, and self-employment in digital times as special topics.
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