Inequalities in Neo-mutualistic Professional Organisations: The Boundary Work of Creative Workers in Italy

Abstract

Noordegraaf, 2011;Liu, 2006), has led to different repertoires of actions emerging that identify and legitimise workers as 'professionals'.According to the analytical dichotomy of professionalism versus organisation (Freidson, 2001), the strategies of occupational professionalism (Evetts, 2013), based on workers' self-directed practices and specific competencies (Gieryn, 1983), are understood as distinct from 'controlled' strategies (Noordegraaf, 2015) that are governed by managerial principles, standardised routines and protocols, and are organised 'from above' (Evetts, 2011). More recently, scholars have identified a 'hybrid' model of professionalism, namely organising professionalism (Noordegraaf, 2015), in which organisations and professionals are mutually connected in ways that serve to continuously redefine their work and tasks.These workers enact strategies that bring about change in organisations. This change gives rise to new actions on the part of professionals (Noordegraaf, 2009) in a dynamic of 'co-evolution'. Indeed, these actions are driven by two fleshed-out logics: professionalism and managerialism (Noordegraaf, 2015). As such, they are hybrid by nature and are widespread in new forms of organisations, the very kinds of collective entities that are shaping organising professionalism (Alvehus et al., 2021).Far from being neutral groupings of workers, these organisations, which are frequently 'multi-professional', bring about a 'division of labour' amongst professionals while responding to higher standards of competitiveness. The mechanisms they put into place come to segment workers, dividing them into 'elite' workers, on the one hand, and 'rankand-file' workers, on the other (Waring & Bishop, 2013;Alacevich et al., 2017). This is especially true in specific productive sectors, such as the creative industries that are characterised by emerging professional jobs. Many creative workers have joined multi-professional organisations to find legitimacy or effective forms of protection. These organisations pursue multiple aims: they operate as labour-market intermediaries and also act as agents of professionalism by defining the work their members do based on their specific skills and expertise and by consolidating their legitimacy (Franzini & Lucciarini, 2022). This role related to skills and expertise is especially S. Lucciarini and V. Pulignano