Abstract This article introduces the concept of the hustle society to explain a contemporary culture and economy that increasingly embraces voracious entrepreneurialism, grift and exploitation as modes of earning and being. Whilst ‘side hustles’ and ‘hustle culture’ are popularly used to denote dedication to capitalist productivity, traditionally ‘hustling’ was the language of informal/illegal earning, con artistry, sex work and pimping. The article explores contemporary phenomenon such as platformization, cryptocurrency exchange and Andrew Tate through the lens of the hustle society. Hustling is defined as a process of transgressing the typical ordering of work and reward through ambiguating between traditional categories, for example, work and leisure, the legitimate and illegitimate. The hustle society privileges exploitative frontier-entrepreneurialism that stems from and contributes to a lack of trust, security and satisfaction.
Jonathan Ilan (Wed,) studied this question.