Unseen, uncounted, unprotected: the classification struggles of performing art workers in Italy

This article examines the mobilisation of Italy’s performing arts workers during the COVID-19 pandemic as a paradigmatic case of classification struggles, in Bourdieu’s sense of symbolic and political conflicts over the boundaries of legitimate work. In a sector marked by fragmentation and discontinuity, large parts of artistic labour remain excluded by the classificatory frameworks that regulate access to social protection. Drawing on qualitative research, the article analyses forms of contestation against these exclusions, arguing that such struggles go beyond redistributive claims to challenge the very cognitive basis underpinning contemporary social policies.