ILPC 2026

The notion of “employment grey zone” (EGZ) is widely used in developing countries and developed countries. It reflects the changing nature of employment relationship (Supiot, 2000). It highlights the difficulties in identifying the employer’s power in productive systems or towards independent networks such as “uberised” workers.

Theoretically, the grey zone underlines the changes in wage-earning relation and their effect on class structuring. The former relationship between employee and employer moves towards an “equal partners” relationship. Consequently, subordination is diluted in a commercial contract and the worker cannot make use of protecting rights. Moreover, the EGZ stresses the institutionalisation of new labour and employment regulations, based on individualisation, in a way that excludes class analysis, as if it was belonging to the past.

Nevertheless, looking at the effects of globalisation in the “Collaborative Economy” obliges to recognize the emergence of new forms of mobilisations. This can be seen in the emergence of new professions that reflects transformations in labour and employment relations and renews the sociology of professions perspective. To interpret professions, I propose a three-part typology. On the one hand, due to globalisation some professions become disqualified and low-payed –they are declining professions–; on the other, the intermediary occupations can be seen as a lock chamber for young people yearning for a better and steady activity out of an internship period, for instance. They try to withdraw from precariousness. Finally, ascending professions can be considered as marked by the individual wishes or utopia. The three of them get off the usual binary understanding of labour relation subordination vs autonomy and shed light on new forms of individual or collective engagement.

To explore such an assumption, I will focus on the uberised workers mobilisation against collaborative platforms, in Brazil and France, mainly. Some other countries such as the UK and the USA will help to stress diverse sorts of mobilisation. In some places, cities are challenging Uber –being the most emblematic case, London, but also Austin –, elsewhere it can be the state which adopts new approaches of the phenomenon and in other cases, evolving unions. The forms struggle is taking are quite different; it goes from the app. prohibition to a more “classic” mobilisation through union action. In France, unions with diverse political perspective are implementing the independent workers defence. For example, CFDT (Confédération française démocratique du travail) & CGT (Confédération générale du travail unions; the former, a compromise union, the latter, a struggle union, are taking into consideration independent workers and bending on “uberised” workers conditions. Interviews with platform workers, secondary data, academic writings will be the key elements to nourish the argument. Such examples shed light on how in current reading of capitalism dynamics, on the one hand, the issue of individualisation is at stake and, on the other, how workers mobilisation can renew social classes issue, but with a, no more based on far from any binary approach dependent vs independent, subordination vs autonomy, and proposing a different perspective, because “The Times They Are A-Changin”.