“Boundaryless” in the creative economy: assessing freelancing on Upwork

ABSTRACT

This paper engages discourses about the nature of creative work through a case study of creative worker freelancing on Upwork, an online marketplace. The analysis begins by contextualizing the growth of freelancing in a transformation of capitalism to a mode of flexible accumulation. It is framed against neoliberal narratives about the creative economy, including promises of financial success and freedom from rigid Fordism. An exploration of the characteristics of technology-mediated work on Upwork, including contract structure, wages, consistency of work, risk-management strategies, and profiles of clients and freelancers follows. The findings suggest that despite the company’s emphases on efficiency, flexibility, and freedom from the physical office, freelancers face significant trade-offs in undertaking such work, notably its infrequency, barriers to high wages, and intense global competition. The discussion addresses structural drivers of precarity in the marketplace and of its ongoing success.

KEYWORDS:

• Online freelancing
• creative economy
• hope labor
• online marketplace
• flexible accumulation

Acknowledgements

Thank you to the reviewers for their insightful feedback.

Notes on contributor

Pawel Popiel is a doctoral student at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.

ORCID

Pawel Popiel http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5641-581X