The experience of self-employment among young people in Zadar and Karlovac

U postmoderno doba dolazi do sve veće individualizacije i širenja fleksibilnih radnih formi. Samozapošljavanje jedan od takvih oblika rada koji postaje sve rašireniji. Ovaj rad se temelji na kvalitativnom istraživanju samozaposlenih mladih, a cilj mu je prikazati iskustvo samozaposlenih mladih u Zadru i Karlovcu. Kako bi se prikazalo iskustvo samozaposlenih, ovaj rad se posebno fokusira na tri aspekta: motivaciju mladih za samozapošljavanje, fleksibilnost radnog mjesta i vremena kao jednu od glavnih odlika samozapošljavanja, te na važnost i ulogu društvenih kontakata u samozapošljavanju. Rad je pokazao kako mlade za samozapošljavanje uglavnom motivira želja za samostalnošću i neovisnošću. Većina sudionika istraživanja smatra kako im fleksibilnost radnog mjesta i vremena omogućuje lakše planiranje i izvršenje radnih zadataka. Također, većina sugovornika smatra da društveni kontakti imaju ulogu pomoći i povećati šanse za bolje poslovanje.Individualization and the expansion of flexible work forms occur in the postmodern times. Self-employment is one of those work forms, and is becoming more widespread. This paper is based on a qualitative research of the population of self-employed young people, and the goal of the paper is to present the experience of self-employed young people in Zadar and Karlovac. To show this experience, the paper focuses on three aspects: motivation of young people for self-employment, flexibility of place and time of work as one of the main characteristics of self-employment, and on the role and importance of social contacts in selfemployment. The paper has shown that young people are mostly motivated by desire for independence. Most of the participants in the study consider that the flexibility of place and time of work makes planning and execution of work assignments. Likewise, most of the participants in the study think that social contacts have the role to help and increase the opportunity for a better management