The Sociology of Self-Employment: A Typology and Reconciliation

Self-employment accounts for a significant share of income-producing work but the ‘sociology of self-employment’ remains embryonic. This article argues that, to date, sociologists have viewed self-employment through discrete lenses, rooted in different intellectual traditions. A novel typology is developed that conceptually maps extant analyses, revealing the variety of ways these lenses portray the relationship of self-employment to capitalism. The identified lenses are: (1) self-employment as residual; (2) self-employment as dynamic; (3) self-employment as hyper-exploitation; (4) self-employment as mundane; and (5) self-employment as ideology. The article suggests that the empirical complexity of self-employment as a phenomenon underpins this multiplicity of sociological conceptualisations. Self-employment is both driver and residuum of capitalist development; self-employed labour both potential (or at least putative) capitalist enterprise and the absence of waged-labour. Reconciling the sociology of self-employment requires we recognise and embrace this complexity for what it tells us about the conditions of work in contemporary capitalism.