Strengthening sustainable employability among self-employed workers in the arts and culture sector
Self-employed workers play an important role in the arts and culture sector, but often work under changing and sometimes vulnerable conditions. This project examines how freelancers in the sector can build a sustainable career: how they remain healthy, continue their professional development, and align their work with both their personal values and a changing labour market.
Together with the Arts Trade Union (Kunstenbond) and Utrecht Creative Community (UCC), we evaluate interventions aimed at strengthening sustainable employability among these workers. The interventions focus on both individual development and collective forms of support that may contribute to more effective cultural policy.
The project draws on the capability approach, which focuses on the real opportunities people have to engage in meaningful and sustainable work. Using realist evaluation, the study examines how, for whom, and under what conditions interventions affect the sustainability of self-employed workers in the arts and culture sector.