By comparing three professional spaces of the “living arts” sector in Belgium, this research project aims at analyzing the
various forms of regulation implied by “project-based” work and at showing how these forms shape the worker’s representations
and career at an objective and subjective level. More precisely, we will deal with the collective structure of work (strong in the
theatre context, weak in the music context, intermediary in the dance context) and its incidence on the way of doing and living
the project-based work regime. Data used in this research will be both quantitative and qualitative. First, for our quantitative
analyses, we will use the database provided the leading institution in artistic employment support in Belgium. These data will help
us to shed light on the different kinds of employment regime within these three professional spaces – and to assess their
incidence on individual career management and worker’s health. This first quantitative analyses will also mobilize original data that
we will collect among musicians, through a sampling network strategy. Second, for our qualitative analysis, we will use the
material gathered through interviews to conduct an in-depth comprehensive analysis of the logics that shape the careers within these
three context as well as the worker’s representations. Our findings will shed light on the “living arts” professional space in
Belgium, about which little is said in the recent sociological literature. They also will impulse a more complex analysis of the
artistic employment, too often reduced to an opposition with the traditional wage-earning employment regime. Finally, our analysis
aims at contributing to a better understanding of contemporary metamorphosis of work and employment.