How Personal Relations Work: Individual Market Adaptation and Collective Action in Flexible Labour Markets

In the context of a growing detachment of workers from organizations and from traditional forms of interest representation, social networks are considered as an important means of individual risk-coping and for union strategies to improve working conditions and organize workers’ interests. To contribute to a better understanding of industrial relations in flexible labour markets, this paper studies the forms and functions of personal networks in the German film and television industry. The findings of this qualitative study provide insights into the institutional and organizational conditions under which networks facilitate individual strategies, the collective organization or fragmentation of the workforce. Particularly important are here not only the strength of ties, but also vertical versus horizontal relations, and interactions between individual and collective strategies of using personal networks.