Making Freelance Work

A Guide to Fair Freelancing in the Arts Sector
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-5292-5982-7
Verlag: Bristol University Press

Buch, Englisch, 176 Seiten, Format (B × H): 127 mm x 203 mm

Over 80% of practitioners in the UK arts sector work on a freelance basis. While freelancing offers scope for autonomy and creative freedom, it is also characterized by widespread precarity, low pay, long hours and systemic inequalities. Funding cuts and recent challenges have only intensified these conditions.

This book provides an evidence-based account of what it means to work as a freelancer in the UK performing arts sector, drawing on data from the Big Freelancer Survey (2020–2025). It presents a unique insight into arts-based freelance work in the UK, providing workable recommendations for change.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Cope, Alistair

Doulton, Mimi

Hancock, Philip

Jones, Samuel P.

Tyler, Melissa

Underwood, Josie

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein Arbeitsmarkt
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Unternehmensorganisation, Corporate Responsibility Selbstständige & Freiberufler

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction

1. Freelancing in the UK Performing Arts Sector

2. Freelance Not Free

3. The Freelance Trap: Being Caught in the ‘Overwork/Underpayment Bind’

4. ‘It’s an Uphill Climb’: Freelancers’ Experiences of Inequality and Exclusion

5. ‘Just Part of the Job?’: The Freelance Mental Health Crisis

6. Making it Work: Towards a More Sustainable, Accessible and Equitable Future

Über Autor(innen)

Alistair Cope, Mimi Doulton, Samuel P. Jones and Josie Underwood are freelancer artists/arts practitioners who work on a voluntary basis for Freelancers Make Theatre Work.

Philip Hancock is a Professor of Work and Organisation Studies at the University of Essex and Co-Director of the Centre for Work, Organisation and Society and the Future of Creative Work research group.

Melissa Tyler is a Professor of Work and Organisation Studies at the University of Essex and Co-director of the Centre for Work, Organisation and Society and the Future of Creative Work research group.