%0 Journal Article %T Self %A Anna Mori %A Paolo Borghi %A Renata Semenza %J Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research %@ 1996-7284 %D 2018 %R 10.1177/1024258918761564 %X The transition to an on-demand service economy, supported by unprecedented technological developments and the digital revolution, has modified traditional self-employed professions and generated new ones, fostering the growth of a body of highly qualified and hyper-specialised self-employed professionals in the European economies. An analysis of this phenomenon highlights three critical questions, connected to their position in the labour market: 1) the contested definition of their legal status and the (ad hoc) regulation adopted; 2) their position within each national social protection system; 3) the complexity of collective representation in a context of major labour market fragmentation. The article explores these issues from a socio-economic perspective, comparing three European countries £¿ Italy, Germany and the UK £¿ with different welfare state regimes and diverse models for regulating professions. First findings show partly divergent responses to such common challenges, yet display some positive signs of change for self-employed professionals %K Self-employed professionals %K social protection %K collective representation %K Italy %K Germany %K United Kingdom %U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1024258918761564