Side-Hustles: Young People and Employment-Adjacent Entrepreneurship

Associate Professor Farrugia’s research explores the contemporary realities of young people navigating work, citizenship, and belonging in an increasingly precarious economy. He examines how economic exploitation and political disenfranchisement intersect, as many young people find themselves employed in insecure, alienating jobs that limit both financial stability and participation in public life. Interviews with young people combining full-time work with entrepreneurial projects (side hustles) show that creating just futures requires social and economic policies that value care, service, and creative labour as essential to community life, rather than as disposable or marginal. Justice demands not only fairer pay and security, but also recognition of the impact that precarious work has on people’s lives..