The precariousness of knowledge workers: hybridisation, self-employment and subjectification

In knowledge - based industries, work is circumscribed by the cognitive frames of creativity in the representations of subjects, but simultaneously demands adaptability, in a context in which deregulation and individualisation are now normal. The ethics of self - activation are therefore inextricably intertwined with the demands of intensification, standardisation and self - commodification. The first volume of this Special Issue – which is composed of two different parts – is focused on the phenomena of hybridisation, self - employment and subjectification, at the core of the experiences of precarious workers in the knowledge societies. This article introduces the first of a two - part Special Issue on the precariousness of knowledge workers.