Independent Workers : New Challenges for Inclusion

Introduction 

The increasing prevalence of independent workers (IWs) in the gig economy—freelancers, contractors, and self-employed professionals—highlights the need to rethink traditional inclusion strategies that were designed for conventional organizational frameworks.

This special issue seeks to address the existing gaps in research and policy regarding the inclusion of independent workers, who are frequently excluded from Equal Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) frameworks. While some scholars have acknowledged the diversity issues within the gig economy, there remains a significant lack of attention to how these workers can be effectively included. The focus of this issue shifts away from traditional social dimensions of inclusion, like gender or race, towards recognizing the specific skills, professional expertise, and work structures of independent workers. 

List of topic Areas

• Diversity
• Inclusion
• Social inclusion
• Professional inclusion
• Inclusion practices: organizational, managerial and individual
• Independent Workers (IWs)
• Freelancers
• Independent contractors

Submissions Information

Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Registration and access are available here.

Author guidelines must be strictly followed. Please see here.

Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to ““Please select the issue you are submitting to”. 
Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.

Key Deadlines

Opening date for manuscripts submissions: 30/6/2025 
Closing date for manuscripts submission: 30/9/2025