Venture Labor| Venture Labor and Media Work: The Canary Has Flown

Authors

  • Paul M. Hirsch Northwestern University

Keywords:

labor, freelance, digital, power, professionals

Abstract

The essays in this series provide valuable insights and commentaries on Neff’s Venture Labor. They show both the gains and losses and the winners and losers as work is transformed by the Internet and social media apps. How venture labor benefits employers as more professionals become freelance contractors as well as how going freelance “liberates” some professionals are well addressed and explained by the authors in this Special Section.

Author Biography

Paul M. Hirsch, Northwestern University

Paul M. Hirsch is the James Allen Professor of Strategy and Organization at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, where he is also a member of the Communication Studies Department.  He has written extensively about careers and organizational change in a wide variety of scholarly journals - most recently Strategic Organization and American Sociological Review.  Hirsch is a pioneer in the study of media sociology and business. His book, Pack Your Own Parachute (1986) anticipated the rise of “free agency,” rather than planning on careers with a single employer. Neff’s account of Venture Labor shows dramatically how much of a norm this has become, in media work and beyond. 

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Published

2017-05-09

Issue

Vol. 11 (2017)

Section

Forum

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