Since the 1970s the long term decline in self-employment has slowed a€“ and even reversed in some countries a€“ and the prospect of `being your own bossa€™ is increasingly topical in the discourse of both the general public and within academia.

Preface 1. Self-Employment: Between Freedom and Insecurity Wieteke Conen and Joop Schippers PART I Do we have to worry about the ‘new self-employed’? Theory and Context 2. Labour Market Flexibility, Self-Employment and Precariousness Joop Schippers 3. Social Protection for the Self-Employed: an EU Legal Perspective Hanneke Bennaars 4. Self-Employment, Pensions and the Risk of Poverty in Old Age Uwe Fachinger PART II Self-Employment and Precarious Work in Europe: Empirical Results 5. Self-Employment: Independent ‘Enterprise’, or Precarious Low-skilled Work? The case of the UK Nigel Meager 6. Micro-Entrepreneurship and Changing Contours of Work: Towards Precarious Work Relations? Empirical Findings from Austria Dieter Bögenhold, Andrea Klinglmair, Zulaicha Parastuty and Florian Kandutsch 7. Precariousness and Social Risks among Solo Self-Employed in Germany and The Netherlands Wieteke Conen and Maarten Debets 8. Between Precariousness and Freedom: the Ambivalent Condition of Independent Professionals in Italy Paolo Borghi and Annalisa Murgia 9. Bogus Self-Employment in Sweden Dominique Anxo and Thomas Ericson 10. Precariousness among Older Self-Employed Workers in Europe Wieteke Conen 11. Migrant Self-Employment in Germany: On the Risks, Characteristics and Determinants of Precarious Work Stefan Berwing, Andrew Isaak and René Leicht PART III Implications and Future Research Agenda 12. The Matter of Representation: Precarious Self-Employment and Interest Organisations Giedo Jansen and Roderick Sluiter 13. The ‘New’ Self-Employed and Hybrid Forms of Employment: Challenges for Social Policies in Europe Karin Schulze Buschoff 14. Between Freedom and Insecurity: Future Challenges Joop Schippers and Wieteke Conen Index