Unseen, uncounted, unprotected: the classification struggles of performing art workers in Italy

Titolo Rivista SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO
Autori/Curatori Maria Dodaro, Francesco Eugenio Iannuzzi
Anno di pubblicazione 2026 Fascicolo 2025/173
Lingua Inglese Numero pagine 23 P. 80-102 Dimensione file 262 KB
DOI 10.3280/SL2025-173005
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This article examines the mobilisation of Italy’s performing arts workers during the COVID-19 pandemic as a paradigmatic case of classification struggles, in Bourdieu’s sense of symbolic and political conflicts over the boundaries of legitimate work. In a sector marked by fragmentation and discontinuity, large parts of artistic labour remain excluded by the classificatory frameworks that regulate access to social protection. Drawing on qualitative research, the article analyses forms of contestation against these exclusions, arguing that such struggles go beyond redistributive claims to challenge the very cognitive basis underpinning contemporary social policies.

Parole chiave:Classification struggles; performing arts work; labour and the welfare state; social policy

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Maria Dodaro, Francesco Eugenio Iannuzzi, Unseen, uncounted, unprotected: the classification struggles of performing art workers in Italy in "SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO " 173/2025, pp 80-102, DOI: 10.3280/SL2025-173005