In knowledge-based industries, work is circumscribed by the cognitive frames of creativity in the representations of subjects, but simultaneously demands adaptability, in a context in which deregulation and individualisation are now normal. The ethics of self-activation are therefore inextricably intertwined with the demands of intensification, standardisation and self-commodification. The first volume of this Special Issue – which is made up of two different parts – focuses on the phenomena of hybridisation, self-employment and subjectification, at the core of the experiences of precarious workers in knowledge societies. This article introduces the first part of the two-part Special Issue on the precariousness of knowledge workers.
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