Abstract
Freelancers work for companies, but also apart from them—at home, on-site, or in shared workspaces. This chapter examines how clients and freelancers manage the employment relationship at a distance. Utilising interview data with Dutch creative freelancers, Lefebvre’s method of ‘rhythmanalysis’, Nitzan and Bichler’s theory of ‘capital as power’, and Holloway’s understanding of human creativity as ‘doing’, the chapter examines the conflicting rhythms of freelance creative work. It shows that freelancers remain subject to traditional workplace-oriented structures of control, particularly in creative agencies. Freelancers’ use of time must correspond to client processes of measurement and valuation. Different client relationships, and the proximity they imply, produce different rhythms of work.
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Pitts, F.H. (2016). Rhythms of Creativity and Power in Freelance Creative Work. In: Webster, J., Randle, K. (eds) Virtual Workers and the Global Labour Market. Dynamics of Virtual Work. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-47919-8_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-47919-8_7
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