Inequalities in neo-mutualistic professional organisations: the boundary work of creative workers in Italy

In this paper we discuss how multi-professional organisations such as mutual aid cooperatives of creative workers operate as agents of differentiation within and between professions. Analysing the actions of individuals and organisations and how they influence each other is key to understanding their implications in terms of differentiation “within” and “between” professions, in the dual sense of a growing division of labour, and also rising inequalities among workers operating in the same occupational ecosystem but in different professional fields. Drawing on Lamont and Molnar’s concept of “boundary work” that is, already used in the sociology of professions, we seek to uncover and explain the relational dynamics that characterising characterise the “professional closure regimes” set up in creative industries as a result of the activities of cooperatives of creative workers and of the workers themselves. Our work is grounded in a case study of an Italian-based creative workers’ cooperative based in Italy that employing employs approximately 8,000 workers with different professional profiles., Of these, including those the ones considered examined in thise analysis, namely are photographers, video makers, and lighting and sound technicians.