Independent work is infused with uncertainty from recurring liminal experiences that pose a challenge to building a viable career and coherent identity. There are conflicting stories about how especially independent contractors cope with their liminality, that is more perpetual than the temporary liminality experienced when changing roles within organizational or institutional contexts. Some flail and survive, while others thrive. Prior studies point to helpful strategies, behaviours, capabilities, and identity work (developing attributes) that enable them to cope with their liminality. Yet why some cope with liminality better than others within similar groups of (e.g., IT) contractors is more obscure. This paper introduces self-categorization theory as a novel lens to inductively build a theory that adds nuance to these conflicting stories. In interviews with 25 IT contractors, conducted during the initial COVID-19 lockdown, I find that they exhibit one of two distinct social identity processes (group convergence or group divergence) that are associated with contrasting attributes (conservative or enterprising). The contrasting attributes increase or decrease informants’ perceived uncertainty when liminality is made salient (by COVID-19), suggesting that self-categorization may be an underexplored but important mechanism that explains how individuals reduce subjective uncertainty in social contexts characterized by perpetual liminality.
