Intermittency at work. A sociology of the freelance and dramatic art markets.

Summary Work is becoming more precarious and employment is crumbling. From subsidized contracts to temporary work, from part-time to fixed-term contracts, the mechanisms and statuses have multiplied to fuel a movement that brings an ever-increasing number of workers to a world of shortened employment. On the model of the art world, they are sometimes called "intermittent": in addition to the intermittent workers in the entertainment industry, there are intermittent workers in research, writing, teaching, catering and journalism. All of them are confronted with the uncertainty of their remuneration, their working hours, and even the possibility of remaining in the labor market or reconciling their personal and professional lives. Finally, turbulence appears in their careers: how to build a long trajectory from brief commitments? The joint study of intermittent actors and freelance journalists provides an answer. It shows what intermittence does to work, and how it affects individual destinies. This sheds light on the organizational principles of careers marked by discontinuity. The markets of actors and freelancers are thus revealed to be anarchic only in appearance. The domestication of the worlds of intermittence remains possible, even if it does not take the same form everywhere.