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The Power of the Powerless: Constructions of Self‐Employment in Czechia
[journal article]
Abstract This article examines the construction of self‐employment in public policy debates, focusing on how political actors define self‐employment and on the moral implications of these categorisations. Employing critical discourse analysis and the social construction of a target population, the authors ex... view more
This article examines the construction of self‐employment in public policy debates, focusing on how political actors define self‐employment and on the moral implications of these categorisations. Employing critical discourse analysis and the social construction of a target population, the authors examine verbatim transcripts of parliamentary debates in the Czech parliament between 2021 and 2023. These debates reveal how legislators perceive the value of self‐employment as a part of the economy. The study explores the underpinnings of such public policy debates, as well as the moral consequences of categorising self‐employment. We argue that by foregrounding some morally loaded argumentations and, in particular, discursive constructions, politicians (as both discursive and policy actors) make some parts of the experience of self‐employment invisible and neglected by policy; as a result, this contributes to the precarity of the self‐employed.... view less
Keywords
Czech; neoliberalism; self-employment; parliamentary debate; precariat
Classification
Labor Market Research
Sociology of Work, Industrial Sociology, Industrial Relations
Free Keywords
critical discourse analysis; neoliberal entrepreneurship ideal; social construction of target population
Document language
English
Publication Year
2024
Journal
Social Inclusion, 12 (2024)
Issue topic
The Global Disappearance of Decent Work? Precarity, Exploitation, and Work-Based Harms in the Neoliberal Era
ISSN
2183-2803
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed