New independence

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

New self-employment , also written New Self- Employment, is a working-world term that has been identified by various scientific disciplines since the 1980s and has been investigated since then, with which a wide variety of new forms of work are described, which are differentiated from the normal employment relationship in Fordist industrial society, but also due to their increasing risk-relatedness and creative autonomy in contrast to conventional self-employment .

Forms of new self-employment are often based on the emergence of new job profiles that are based on personal knowledge and skills and make comparatively low demands on economic and human resources.

The figure of the new self-employed

The new self-employment is mainly characterized by the "domestication" of the workplace. This not only means doing work from home, but above all the freedom from being bound by instructions when performing work and a higher degree of freedom in making decisions. The unregulated working hours, the free organization of the work process and the growing rivalry on the labor market are the factors that force the new self-employed to develop flexible working models. Professionalism, specialist knowledge, creativity and innovation and implementation skills are among the most important characteristics of the new self-employed and the basic elements for starting out on a self-employed basis.

Concept development

The concept of new independence was coined in the 1980s by Gerd Vonderach and taken up by sociology, which thus defined a socio-cultural and professionally heterogeneous group with the goal of independently organized, alternatively organized work. In the mid-1990s, labor lawyers used him to describe a tendency to weaken the protective rights of employees and the associated precariousness of gainful employment. Since the end of the nineties, the term has been used specifically for the wave of self-employed people in information technology and the multimedia sector, in consulting services and the media. More generally, the term is used today "in the social and legal sciences [...] for a new form of work and life that deviates from the traditional social type of the self-employed and that has been established as a result of structural and organizational change processes since the early 1990s."

to form

Independent work

  • Forms of self-employment are in particular the well-known freelancers, self-employed and small businesses without employees. The new self-employment is characterized by terms such as freelancer (also: freelancer ), e-lancer, multiple employees, micropreneurs or netpreneurs. These groups operate on the market with at least occasionally changing customers and are largely independent economically and organizationally. The typical way the work is organized is characteristic: using information and communication technologies, they offer project-related services on a fee basis.
  • The term “ bogus self-employment” or “permanent freelance” is used when companies transfer previously employed activities to formally self-employed persons (so-called outsourcing), but the workforce remains largely economically and organizationally dependent. The background is personal and financial relief.

The independent work in the company

There is also a trend in companies to leave the organization of the work to the employee (so-called wage and instruction-dependent forms of work with extended autonomy). These forms do not fall directly under the profile of the new self-employed, but both phenomena are to be seen as an expression of a development that is characterized by the chosen or forced transfer of responsibility to the "worker". The so-called transformation theorem is seen as a background, as is the need for companies to locate organizational processes, strategy development and responsibility for results on the lowest levels as possible in a fast, almost uncontrollable market and thus transfer them from management to employees. The transformation theorem means the transfer of work potential into a concrete work performance, which is now increasingly to be carried out by the employee himself. The guiding principle is the much-cited intrapreneur or entrepreneur in the company .

The following forms of independent work exist in the company: group-related forms of work such as project organization , forms of flexible work in terms of time and location ( teleworking , home work , mobile work as temporary work outside the company, temporary work , contract work) and cost and profit center models aimed at middle-level executives.

Industry sectors

The classic branches of new self-employment can largely be assigned to the cultural and creative industries . These include, for example:

  • Music industry
  • Book market
  • Art market
  • Film industry
  • Broadcasting industry
  • Performing arts market
  • Design economy
  • Architecture market
  • Press market
  • Advertising market
  • Software / games industry
  • Event industry and event technology

However, there is also an increasing proportion of self-employed workers in other areas, such as outpatient care or IT. It is generally assumed that the number of self-employed will continue to increase in other economic sectors as well.

The new self-employed person on the job market

Differentiation from the classic work roles

The new self-employed person is located between the classic work roles of the entrepreneur, the classic self-employed and the employee.

  • What the new self-employed have in common with the figure of the entrepreneur is that they act in an entrepreneurial manner with regard to their own work capacity and the capital employed. You are responsible for product or project development and success, and you are constantly in a customer-contractor relationship.
  • The new self-employed distinguish themselves from the role of the “old” self-employed in particular through the increased marketing of work and performance relationships. “ Liberal professions usually encompass a narrowly defined, strategically isolated field of privileged employment as a typical result of professionalization strategies.” Although the new self-employed are typically represented in certain sectors, they are in no way associated with clear professional profiles or privileges.
  • In contrast to the Fordist worker , the post-Fordist contractor either moves freely on the market or is affiliated with a company that integrates market structures into the relationship with the worker . Work content, workplace and working time are hardly predefined or specified, the work result is compared via the form of the fee.

Advantages and disadvantages of new self-employment

The advantages that make self-employed work more attractive than wage labor include:

  • freedom of choice when choosing a job,
  • unregulated working hours,
  • Carrying out the chosen activities without instructions,
  • autonomous decision-making,
  • Harmonization of private and working life,
  • reduced travel time and costs.

The new self-employment also has disadvantages compared to wage labor. It is worth mentioning, for example, the great business risk that every self-employed person must take. Uncertainty, reinforced by market mechanisms and great competition, and the fear of debt and bankruptcy are constant companions. After all, the new self-employed person is neither integrated into the state social security system nor is it covered by labor protection, dismissal protection or remuneration protection laws.

Coping strategies of the new self-employed

Social networks

A network:

  • 1. is a social framework that has a stabilizing function,
  • 2. it offers social support,
  • 3. It can be expected and an economic gain in the long run
  • 4. It plays a key role in customer acquisition.

However, it cannot be assumed that a social network takes over the supply function. However, it can be understood as a countermovement to the increasing social discontinuity.

The actors no longer live in a “long-term order”, but have to get involved in a “new regime in the short term” ( drift ) if they want to survive in modern capitalism. In this way, this deregulation is softening existing institutional patterns and creating network-like structures that are less cumbersome than permanent structures. The consequence of fluidity is an experience of contradictions: on the one hand, new design leeway is opened up, but at the same time self-determination is limited by new claims, social norms of behavior and economic constraints. This new form of working relationship requires modified relationship and attachment styles, as the actor is exposed to frequent attachment and detachment requirements (social dimension of discontinuity). This psychological balancing act that an actor has to accomplish probably explains the preference of the new self-employed for relatively stable network constructions.

A network represents a form of capital: social capital . It is "dependent on the direct and indirect relationships that an actor maintains with other actors in a network." In this context, Mark Granovetter speaks of the strength of weak relationships . He names the pair of terms of strong ties and weak ties . While the strong bonds generate solidarity and trust, weak bonds are less redundant. They provide new information and are able to bridge large gaps and are therefore important for mobility, modernization, innovation and diffusion processes.

Science has also dealt with the phenomenon of networks as social capital. Research has produced a lot of different models. These network approaches tie in with the work of Pierre Bourdieu (1983), James Samuel Coleman (1990), Ronald Burt (1992) and Robert Putnam (2000). Like any capital, social capital can also be converted into other capital, goods or services.

Coworking

So-called coworking spaces can already be found in many large cities. The basic idea of ​​these shared offices is the spatial delimitation of the proprietary workplace thinking. Building on the idea of ​​an office community as a social network, it is hoped that the work of various projects and actors in a confined space will result in improved knowledge transfer, synergy effects through cooperation or the incubation of new projects.

Well-known coworking spaces in Europe are, for example, the Betahaus in Berlin, the Basement in Copenhagen or Le Bureau in London.

Economic and social development conditions

Service and knowledge society, technological development and corporate strategy

Four economic factors are considered to be decisive: the development towards a service and knowledge society, the new information and communication technologies and entrepreneurial behavior that is adapting to complex market structures.

  • With the development towards a service society, the job market is growing for the self-employed. On the one hand, material or personal services are by their nature provided in a small business or independent form. On the other hand, the high-growth production-oriented services (product customization, scope of services) are often outsourced.
  • The concept of the knowledge worker is associated with the knowledge society and, like no other figure, stands for the way the new self-employed work. Only dependent on his PC as a work tool and work organization tool, his only product can be a good idea. Its range of services usually includes the production, processing, distribution and management of information.
  • Technological progress has greatly changed the way work is organized. The new information and communication technologies and more powerful computers make it possible to work independently by increasingly decoupling the place of work and business premises or even making the connection to a company obsolete. In this context, the concept of the so-called virtual company fits in, which as such only offers a (virtual) platform for product- or project-related cooperation between several companies or people.
  • The corporate strategies of rationalization ( outsourcing ) and flexibility that have been geared towards the increasingly dynamic and complex market since the 1980s have created market opportunities for small businesses and the self-employed. Today, entrepreneurial value creation is dependent on constant learning, customer proximity and short reaction times: "In order to achieve the goal of spontaneous adaptation, the company management must let the market into the company and pass it on to the largely independent service units as unfiltered as possible." This loosens the boundaries between the company and the environment and enables far-reaching integration.

The crisis of the business community and change in values

The crisis of the working society is seen as the social basis for the new independence, as is the change in values ​​from materialistic to post-materialistic orientations.

  • "The" trend towards self-employment "arises in the phase of normalization of mass unemployment ... Self-employment appears as an opportunity and an alternative to an insecure employee career or to unemployment." Flexible forms of work, occasional unemployment and self-employed and freelance work are displacing the normal employment relationship . This loses its high social impact: securing individual income, the structural principle of social systems, generating social status and the basis of a socially accepted value system of reciprocity and justice. The desire for self-organized work is also interpreted as an effort to maintain the high biographical significance of the occupation as a part of life. In this context, reference should also be made to the theory of the new work by Frithjof Bergmann.
  • The main thesis of the representatives of the change in values is that the satisfaction of basic needs in particular has led to changed demands on work in the direction of self-determination and meaning (so-called post-materialistic values). Typically, the new self-employed person is characterized by “… neither instrumental wage labor awareness, nor bureaucratic or professional task identification, nor secularized work and professional ethics.” He realizes a high degree of freedom with regard to work content, organization and work environment. At the same time, these so-called post-conventional work attitudes require a complete individualization of burdens, responsibilities and competencies - i.e. a high degree of self-control, self-reflexivity and self-regulation.

New independence and social policy

The new self-employment is of socio-political importance on the one hand due to the often inconsistent income situation, on the other hand due to the high professional and social mobility of the new self-employed, which is expressed in the relatively frequent change in employment status. Both of these factors mean that there is a broader income distribution in the case of new self-employment than in the case of dependent employees and self-employed in the classic sense. The income structure of the new self-employed is characterized by a high number of low and high incomes. In addition, the new self-employed are not involved in corporatist structures to the same extent as traditional self-employed (e.g. Chamber of Crafts). In general, the social heterogeneity of the new self-employed means that they have little or no centralized interest representation. Due to the increased risks of precarious working conditions associated with these circumstances, the increasing importance of new self-employment will make it more and more important in the future to strengthen its socio-political position. In Austria, this already happened in 1998 with the inclusion of the fourth basic form of self-employment and the introduction of compulsory health, accident and pension insurance and an optional unemployment insurance.

National

Germany

In relation to the basic pillars of the German social security system, the following picture emerges for the self-employed. Instead of uniform rules, there is an unsystematic inclusion of independent minority groups in the social security systems. Either there is no compulsory insurance, as is the case with unemployment insurance , or there are compulsory special systems for some of the self-employed (midwives, farmers, inland waterway operators) , as is the case with statutory pension schemes. There is no compulsory insurance for the remaining 75 percent, although the new government has plans to create easier access for the self-employed to state-sponsored old-age provision. Only in the area of statutory health insurance was the health reform of the grand coalition of 2007 introduced an insurance obligation that applies to all self-employed people. In principle, the self-employed in Germany are not fully integrated into the social security systems. This has a particularly negative impact on the group of the new self-employed, as they only have a weak interest organization and therefore do not have a significant voice in political and social discourse.

Austria

In Austria, new self-employment is one of the four possible types of self-employment , alongside commercial employment , primary production and freelance work . “Newly self-employed” is anyone who works independently but has not registered a business. The precise definition is under social law:

People who earn income from self-employed work  under tax law due to a business activity (§ 22, 23  EStG 1988 ) and who do not need a trade license for these activities. (§ 2 Paragraph 1 Z 4 GSVG )

The reason for this definition is that since 1998 all self-employed people have been included in the GSVG, unless compulsory insurance (according to the GSVG or another social insurance law, e.g. through a free service contract ) existed. In addition to this activity, there may also be an employed or other self-employed job, because this group was created in particular for secondary jobs , mini-jobs and other atypical employment relationships . New self-employed are typically  compulsorily insured under the Commercial Social Insurance Act  (GSVG) or under the Freelance Self-Employed Act (FSVG).

The new self-employed are usually characterized by the fact that they:

  • are by no means members of the  Chamber of Commerce (WKÖ) and
  • Chamber members of a liberal profession can, but do not have to be.

The new self-employed are therefore subject to

In practice these are:

In addition to individuals, companies can also appear as new self-employed.

The typical occupational fields for the new self-employed are (industry list of the commercial social insurance institution for new self-employed): Consulting occupations (tax consultants, accountants, experts, lecturers, supervisory boards, etc.), technical occupations (such as programmers), commercial professions , media professions (journalists, web designers, etc.) ), Science / research , but also artists and writers, psychotherapists, midwives, etc. a. m.

In Austria there are around 40,000 new self-employed (as of 2014), that is around 8% of the self-employed (475,000) and 1% of the employed (4,175,000).

See also

literature

  • Sergio Bologna: The Destruction of the Middle Classes: Theses on the New Independence . Nausner & Nausner Verlag, Graz / Vienna 2006.
  • Pierre Bourdieu: The Forms of Capital . In: Mark Granovetter / Richard Swedberg (Ed.) .: The sociology of economic life . Westview Press, Boulder Colo. (et al.) 2001, pp. 96-111.
  • Hans-Jörg Bullinger, et al. (Ed.): New forms of organization in the company. A manual for modern management. Springer-Verlag, Berlin / Heidelberg 2003.
  • Michael Fritsch: Innovation, Cooperation and Region - Elements of Networked Business . In: Dieter Bögenhold (Ed.): Entrepreneurship and decentralization. The renaissance of self-employment in Europe? Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen / Wiesbaden 1999, pp. 159–172.
  • Mark Granovetter: Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness . In: In: Nicole Woolsey Biggart (Ed.): Readings in Economic Sociology . Malden / Mass u. et al., Blackwell 2002S. 67-93.
  • Joachim Hafkesbrink: Identity formation in virtual companies: Coping with system innovations through a co-evolution of personal and organizational identity . In: Hartmut Neuendorff, Bernd Ott (ed.): New employment biographies and career-biography discontinuity. Identity and competence development in unbounded forms of work . Schneider Verl. Hohengehren, Baltmannsweiler 2006, pp. 174–197.
  • Ernst-H. Hoff, Eyko Ewers, Olaf Petersen, Ulrike Schraps: New forms of work and life. Biographical action, reflexive identity and conflict management . In: Hartmut Neuendorff, Bernd Ott (ed.): New employment biographies and career-biography discontinuity. Identity and competence development in unbounded forms of work . Schneider Verl. Hohengehren, Baltmannsweiler 2006, pp. 24–51.
  • Dorothea Jansen: Networks and Social Capital. Methods for analyzing structural embedding . In: Johannes Weyer (ed.) With co-workers from Jörg Abel et al .: Social networks. Concepts and methods of social science network research . Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich / Vienna 2000, pp. 35-62.
  • Heiner Keupp: Patchwork identity - risky opportunities with precarious resources . In: Hartmut Neuendorff, Bernd Ott (ed.): New employment biographies and career-biography discontinuity. Identity and competence development in unbounded forms of work . Schneider Verl. Hohengehren, Baltmannsweiler 2006, pp. 5–23.
  • Walter W. Powell: Learning from Collaboration: Knowledge and Networks in the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries . In: Nicole Woolsey Biggart (Ed.): Readings in Economic Sociology . Malden / Mass u. a., Blackwell 2002, pp. 262-273.
  • Peter Preisendörfer: Social Capital and Entrepreneurial Action. The social network of company founders as a success factor . In: Axel Franzen, Markus Freitag (ed.): Social capital. Basics and Applications . Cologne journal for sociology and social psychology , special issue 47/2007, pp. 272–293.
  • Karin Schulze-Buschoff: New self-employed - The development in Germany and in other European countries . Hans Böckler Foundation, Düsseldorf 2007.
  • Isabelle Stadelmann-Steffen, Markus Freitag: The economic value of social relationships. An empirical analysis of the relationship between trust, social networks and economic growth in an intercultural comparison . In: Axel Franzen, Markus Freitag (ed.): Social capital. Basics and Applications . Cologne Journal for Sociology and Social Psychology , special issue 47/2007, pp. 294–320.
  • Gerd Vonderach: The new self-employed: 10 theses on the sociology of an unexpected phenomenon. In: Communications from labor market and occupational research. 13th year / 1980, Nuremberg.
  • Johannes Weyer: On the status of network research in the social sciences . In: Johannes Weyer (ed.) With co-workers from Jörg Abel et al .: Social networks. Concepts and methods of social science network research . Oldenbourg, Munich / Vienna 2000, pp. 1-34.
  • Mia Wolf, Michael Kastner: Stress from breaks and gaps in discontinuous employment trajectories: Transition skills as a coping resource. Results from the investigations within the framework of the VICO project (virtual qualification coach) . In: Hartmut Neuendorff, Bernd Ott, (Ed.): New employment biographies and career-biography discontinuity. Identity and competence development in unbounded forms of work . Schneider Verl. Hohengehren, Baltmannsweiler 2006, pp. 101-133.
  • Blurring of the contours: Employee or entrepreneur - atypically busy typical of the future of work? Paper presented at a seminar by the Pedagogical Institute of the Federal Republic of Vienna on October 4, 2005, Vienna ( doc file, 136 kB ; ifte.at).
  • New entrepreneurship - perspectives of the new independence and cooperative economy. Berlin, September 2003 ( PDF file, 257 KB ; fes.de).

Austria:

Web links

Germany:

Austria:

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. the relevant section in the self-employment article .
  2. ↑ K. Schulze-Buschoff: New self-employed - The development in Germany and in other European countries. , 2007, p. 5.
  3. ^ S. Bologna: The Destruction of the Middle Classes. Theses on New Self-Employment , 2006, p. 14.
  4. ^ S. Bologna: The Destruction of the Middle Classes. Theses on New Independence , 2006, p. 31.
  5. ↑ A. Gerlmaier: New self-employment in the information society. A comparison of requirements and individual resource potentials in autonomous, flexible and work-sharing forms of work in the IT area. , 2002, p. 58ff.
  6. ^ A b G. Vonderach: The new self-employed: 10 theses on the sociology of an unexpected phenomenon In: Messages from the labor market and occupational research. , Vol. 13, 1980, p. 161.
  7. ↑ A. Gerlmaier: New self-employment in the information society. A comparison of requirements and individual resource potentials in autonomous, flexible and work-sharing forms of work in the IT area. , 2002, p. 62.
  8. ^ G. Voss / H. Pongratz: The labor entrepreneur. A new basic form of labor? , 1998, p. 7f.
  9. ^ H. Bullinger et al .: New forms of organization in companies. A manual for modern management. , 2003, pp. 87ff.
  10. ^ G. Voss / H. Pongratz: The labor entrepreneur. A new basic form of labor? , 1998, p. 6.
  11. ^ S. Bologna: The Destruction of the Middle Classes. Theses on the new independence. , 2006, pp. 9-45.
  12. ^ G. Voss / H. Pongratz: The labor entrepreneur. A new basic form of labor? , 1998, p. 19.
  13. ^ S. Bologna: The Destruction of the Middle Classes. Theses on the new independence. , 2006, pp. 9-45.
  14. ^ S. Bologna: The Destruction of the Middle Classes. Theses on New Independence , 2006, p. 38.
  15. ^ H. Otto: Introduction to Labor Law. 1997, Gruyter: Berlin, New York, p. 34.
  16. ↑ M. Wolf; M. Kastner: Stress caused by breaks and gaps in discontinuous employment trajectories: transition skills as coping resources. Results from the investigations within the framework of the VICO project (virtual qualification coach). In: H. Neuendorff / B. Ott (Ed.): New employment biographies and career-biography discontinuity. Identity and competence development in unbounded forms of work. , 2006, pp. 101-133.
  17. ↑ M. Wolf; M. Kastner: Stress caused by breaks and gaps in discontinuous employment trajectories: transition skills as coping resources. Results from the investigations within the framework of the VICO project (virtual qualification coach). In: H. Neuendorff / B. Ott (Ed.): New employment biographies and career-biography discontinuity. Identity and competence development in unbounded forms of work. , 2006, p. 125.
  18. ^ H. Keupp: Patchwork Identity - Risky Chances with Precarious Resources. In: Neuendorff, Hartmut / Ott, Bernd (Hg.): New employment biographies and career-biography discontinuity. Identity and competence development in unbounded forms of work. , 2006, p. 9.
  19. ↑ M. Wolf; M. Kastner: Stress caused by breaks and gaps in discontinuous employment trajectories: transition skills as coping resources. Results from the investigations within the framework of the VICO project (virtual qualification coach). In: H. Neuendorff / B. Ott (Ed.): New employment biographies and career-biography discontinuity. Identity and competence development in unbounded forms of work. , 2006, p. 114f.
  20. ↑ D. Jansen: Networks and social capital. Methods for analyzing structural embedding. In: J. Weyer (Ed.), With co-workers by J. Abel et al .: Social networks. Concepts and methods of social science network research. , 2000, p. 37.
  21. ↑ D. Jansen: Networks and social capital. Methods for analyzing structural embedding. In: J. Weyer (Ed.), With co-workers by J. Abel et al .: Social networks. Concepts and methods of social science network research. , 2000, p. 35ff.
  22. ↑ D. Jansen: Networks and social capital. Methods for analyzing structural embedding. In: J. Weyer (Ed.), With co-workers by J. Abel et al .: Social networks. Concepts and methods of social science network research. , 2000, p. 37ff.
  23. ^ H. Bullinger et al .: New forms of organization in companies. A manual for modern management. , 2003, pp. 158-168.
  24. ^ S. Bologna: The Destruction of the Middle Classes. Theses on the new independence. , 2006, pp. 97f.
  25. ↑ a b H. Uske: Will we all become entrepreneurs? In: DISS-Journal. Newspaper of the Duisburg Institute for Linguistic and Social Research. No. 17, 2008, p. 9.
  26. ^ H. Bullinger et al .: New forms of organization in companies. A manual for modern management. , 2003, p. 91.
  27. ^ E. Senghaas-Knobloch: From the working to the activity society? On a current debate. In: work. No. 2, Vol. 8, 1999, pp. 117-127.
  28. ↑ K. Schulze-Buschoff: New self-employed - The development in Germany and in other European countries. , 2007, p. 7 ff.
  29. ↑ a b System of compulsory insurance (ASVG, GSVG, FSVG, BSVG), help.gv.at
  30. ^ Coalition negotiations: construction site social policy - more news - FOCUS Online
  31. ↑ K. Schulze-Buschoff: New self-employed - The development in Germany and in other European countries. , 2007, p. 15 ff.
  32. ↑ What types of self-employment are there? help.gv.at, accessed February 27, 2015.
  33. ↑ a b c d e f New self-employed persons - sales tax, SVA and list of professions , selfstaendig-machen.at, accessed February 17, 2015.
  34. ↑ a b New self-employed ( memento of the original from February 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.usp.gv.at archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Unternehmensservice Portal, usp.gv.at, accessed February 27, 2015.
  35. ↑ a b c d e New self-employed: definition ( memento of March 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) , sfg.at.
  36. ↑ Innovative New Self-Employed ( Memento from February 22, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) , sfg.at.
  37. ↑ Annual microcensus labor force survey. Retrieved September 4, 2015 .