“If Things Really Go On as They Are at the Moment, Then I Will Work Illegally. End of Story.” Pandemic Realities in Marginalized Entrepreneurships

Micro-enterprises and self-employed individuals have been hit particularly hard by the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, but few studies have tackled the issue. This paper is based on four in-depth case studies of self-employed people from different sectors who have been greatly affected by measures taken to control the pandemic. By capturing shifts in the perception of institutional and economic pressures, as well as precarity after the outbreak of COVID-19, we gained profound insight into crisis management among entrepreneurs working in niche or marginalized fields of business. We found parallels in their biographies and attitudes, but their perceptions of the COVID-19 pandemic differ. We observed paradoxes and hybrid logic, as well as different ways of coping with the crisis. Having a “plan B” helped in some cases, while all of them benefitted from the solidarity of networks and communities

Temporary Employment, Permanent Stigma? Perceptions of Temporary Agency Workers Across Low- and High-Skilled Jobs

Research on temporary agency work emphasizes that temporary agency workers (TAWs), particularly those in low-skilled jobs associated with precariousness and low social prestige, are likely to be exposed to poor treatment, as well as stigmatization. On the contrary, stigmatization of TAWs in high-skilled jobs has not been treated in much detail in previous studies. Literature provides an incomplete picture of stigmatization within the broader field of temporary employment regarding the focus on low-skilled jobs. Hence, the present qualitative study is based on data from interviews of a heterogeneous sample of TAWs employed in low- and high-skilled jobs in Germany. By using and modifying Boyce and colleagues’ (2007) model of stigmatization, the study shows that stigmatizing treatment towards TAWs occurs across all skill levels, although the intensity and form of those experiences, as well as coping strategies, differ. Thereby, this study contributes to a more differentiated and skill level-specific understanding of how TAWs perceive and cope with stigmatization linked to their employment status. It also provides an important opportunity to advance Boyce and colleagues’ (2007) complex model of TAW stigmatization with empirical underpinnings

Marginalisierte Arbeit und deren Effekte: Aktuelle Befunde in und jenseits von Organisationen

Die im Zeitalter des ‚unorganisierten Kapitalismus‘ auftretenden Entgrenzungen und Flexibilisierungen von Arbeit bringen atypische Beschäftigungsformen mit sich, sei es Leiharbeit, Solo-Selbständigkeit oder Graubereiche wie die stetig wachsende ‚Gig Economy‘. Nicht wenige, der in diesen Sektoren tätigen Menschen, sehen sich prekären Bedingungen ausgesetzt – teils mit den entsprechenden gesundheitlichen Folgen wie Depressionen oder Erschöpfungszustände. Überdies sind viele Tätigkeitsfelder marginalisiert und zwar in mehrfacher Hinsicht: So sind einige Gebiete des Entrepreneurship in der Forschung nur wenig bis kaum beachtet, etwa Klein(st)-UnternehmerInnen bestimmter Professionen (z.B. Sexarbeit) oder beispielsweise in migrantischen Kontexten. Andererseits zeigt sich Randständigkeit auch im Forschungsfeld selbst – etwa im Falle von LeiharbeiterInnen, die sich Ausgrenzung und Stigmatisierung gegenübersehen. Die vorliegende kumulative Dissertation bündelt drei wissenschaftliche Artikel, die sich jeweils im Spannungsfeld eben jener Marginalisierung bewegen. Dabei handelt es sich konkret um eine Mehrfachfallstudie zu Selbständigen vor und während der COVID-19-Pandemie, eine Untersuchung zu Stigmatisierung in der Leiharbeit und schließlich ein konzeptionelles Papier, das eine Klassifizierung prekärer und marginalisierter Formen des Entrepreneurship vornimmt. Neben dem Fokus auf Strategien des Umgangs mit prekären Arbeitskontexten ziehen sich durch alle drei Artikel Fragen professioneller und sozialer Identitäten. Dabei ist es insbesondere das konfliktäre Aufeinandertreffen – etwa von Stigmatisierung, professioneller Identität und sozialer Normung – das sich herausarbeiten ließ. Auch widersprüchliche Logiken, wie im Falle der untersuchten UnternehmerInnen, konnten beleuchtet werden. Der organisationale Kontext und entsprechende Rückschlüsse auf Managementprozesse treten vor allem in der Studie zu LeiharbeiterInnen hervor, einige Anschlüsse ergeben sich aber auch in Kategorien des marginalisierten und prekären Entrepreneurship. Methodisch sind die in dieser Dissertation zusammengefassten Beiträge im Bereich der qualitativen Forschung angesiedelt. Trotz des vergleichsweise geringen Anteils entsprechender Arbeiten innerhalb der Wirtschaftswissenschaften, wird deren Bedeutung für die Theoriearbeit, Hypothesengenerierung und damit auch als Basis für quantitative Forschung häufig betont. In der vorliegenden Arbeit ermöglicht der gewählte Ansatz zudem einen Zugang zu den Wirkungen prekärer Arbeit auf individueller Ebene, aber auch einen Blick auf intraorganisationale Prozesse, dies vor allem im Falle der Leiharbeit.In the age of disorganised capitalism, increasing flexibility of work and deregulation entails atypical forms of employment, such as temporary work, self-employment or grey areas like the steadily growing 'gig economy'. People working in these sectors are often exposed to precarious conditions, sometimes leading to health problems such as depression or fatigue. In addition, many occupational fields are marginalised in more than one way: For example, some areas of entrepreneurship have received only little or hardly any attention in research, such as micro entrepreneurs in certain professions (e.g., sex work) or within contexts of migration. On the other hand, marginalisation is also evident in the actual fields of research. This can be seen in the case of temporary workers, who face organisational segregation and stigmatisation. This series of papers presents three articles, each of which is framed by marginalisation and precarious contexts. Namely, this involves a multiple case study of four self-employed before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, an examination of stigmatisation in the field of temporary work as well as a conceptual paper that proposes a classification of precarious and marginalised forms of entrepreneurship. While focusing on strategies of coping with contexts of precarious work, questions of professional and social identities emerge in all three papers. In particular, conflicting elements – such as stigma, professional identity and social norms – were identified. Similarly, it was possible to shed light on conflicting logics, as in the case of self-employed entrepreneurs. The organisational context and conclusions about management processes were most prominent in the study on temporary workers, whereas some correlations also emerged in categories of marginalised and precarious entrepreneurship. From a methodological point of view, the studies gathered in this dissertation are all positioned in the field of qualitative research. Despite the rather moderate proportion of such work within economics, its importance for theoretical work, the generation of hypotheses and thereby as a basis for quantitative research is often emphasised. In the studies at hand, the chosen approach provides an insight into the effects of precarious work at an individual level, but also into intra-organisational processes, especially in the case of temporary agency work