SELF-EMPLOYMENT CAREER DYNAMICS - THE CASE OF UNEMPLOYMENT PUSH IN UKBOOK PUBLISHING

The recent revival of self-employment in the UK and other advanced ind ustrialised economies has been viewed contrastingly as an indication o f economic vitality and, alternatively, as a form of labour market def iciency. These different perceptions rest essentially on two opposing processes of entry into self-employment - 'entrepreneurial pull' and ' unemployment push'. The research reported here, into freelancing in bo ok publishing, reveals patterns of entry into self-employment which re flect the presence of both these processes, plus additional configurat ions and changes over time. The respondents, being predominantly femal e, were ultra-typical of those who swelled the self-employed workforce during the 1980s, when the number of female self-employed without emp loyees doubled in the period 1981-93.