Sociality entangled. Freelance creative labour and digital networking

This contribution focuses on the relationship between creative freelancers and digital platforms regarding networking practices. In highly relational, project-based environments, freelancers' main way to find professional opportunities are social relationships. Inside a network sociality (Wittel, 2001), digital platforms present an essential tool for success as self-branding has become an explicit form of labour (Gandini, 2016; Hearn, 2008). Within the sample of creative freelancers in Rome and Berlin, some respondents reject digital networking, as in their perception it does not create “real”, “authentic” relationships. They hold highly idealistic views of their professional relationships. The rejection of digital technology becomes part of a “romantic”, “against the current” self-identity they actively construct (cf. Giddens, 1991). Other respondents embrace digital networking specifically as an instrument to bond on a more intimate level with potential clients and collaborators. They utilise their social media profiles to 1) convey an artistic, professional persona, marketing an entrepreneurial ethos (Bandinelli & Arvidsson, 2012) and to 2) generate a form of curated intimacy, concealing the networking purpose of their profiles with seemingly private insights. Both perspectives ultimately illustrate how deeply intertwined the personalities and private lives of creative freelancers are with their professional practices. The relationship between digital space and social capital appears to be shifting, with social media platforms explicitly serving the purpose of “bonding” (cf. Putnam, 2000) with professionally valuable contacts.