Entrepreneurship as Self-improvement: Stories of Freedom and Precarity among Self-employed People on the Move in São Paulo and Barcelona

Izaguirre, Lorena [UCL] Sandoz, Laure

Research on neo-nomadism has focused mainly on privileged forms of lifestyle migration, portraying these practices as individual choices but paying little attention to their embeddedness in constraining socio- economic structures. Yet, neo-nomadic practices are increasingly involving lower- to middle-class people. They may experience a sense of freedom and subjective upward social mobility; however, their lives are also marked by precarious conditions. We investigate this tension through ethnographic research and interviews with digital nomads in coworking spaces in Barcelona and street vendors in São Paulo. We analyse the links between self- employment and neo-nomadism in their trajectories by drawing on literature on subjective social mobility. We find that emic definitions of “moving up” among our research participants involve three existential dimensions: (1) the quest for freedom, or the subjective sense of social mobility associated with mastering one’s time and choices; (2) the valuation of flexibility, or positive imaginaries of (transnational) spatial mobility and its advantages; and (3) the desire for personal growth, connected with discourses of self-improvement, self-reliance, and individualisation. We argue that entrepreneurship can be analysed as a frame for developing self-reliance and self-improvement in neoliberal contexts where individuals face increasing levels of uncertainty and precarisation.