Pub Date : 2023-07-24DOI: 10.1163/24714607-bja10122
Juan Arasanz Díaz, Pablo Sanz de Miguel
Food-delivery digital labour platforms started to operate in Spain in 2016. As in other national contexts, these platforms have misclassified workers as independent contractors rather than employees, shifting responsibilities and risks onto workers who have been forced to operate under marketized relationships lacking protection. This paper analyses trade unions practices and strategies targeted towards food-delivery platform workers (riders) in Spain. The findings are based on desk research and fieldwork consisting of semi-structured interviews with representatives from different trade unions and self-organized workers’ associations. The article shows how trade unions’ strategies resting on litigation and social dialogue ended up with the first legislation in Europe which introduced a rebuttable presumption of employment in the field of delivery platforms. At the same time, it shows the limitation of those strategies resting on institutional power resources due to the fragmentation of workers’ interests and the newly platforms’ strategies to circumvent labour law.
{"title":"Union Strategies for the Representation of Platform Delivery Workers in Spain","authors":"Juan Arasanz Díaz, Pablo Sanz de Miguel","doi":"10.1163/24714607-bja10122","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/24714607-bja10122","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Food-delivery digital labour platforms started to operate in Spain in 2016. As in other national contexts, these platforms have misclassified workers as independent contractors rather than employees, shifting responsibilities and risks onto workers who have been forced to operate under marketized relationships lacking protection. This paper analyses trade unions practices and strategies targeted towards food-delivery platform workers (riders) in Spain. The findings are based on desk research and fieldwork consisting of semi-structured interviews with representatives from different trade unions and self-organized workers’ associations. The article shows how trade unions’ strategies resting on litigation and social dialogue ended up with the first legislation in Europe which introduced a rebuttable presumption of employment in the field of delivery platforms. At the same time, it shows the limitation of those strategies resting on institutional power resources due to the fragmentation of workers’ interests and the newly platforms’ strategies to circumvent labour law.","PeriodicalId":42634,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Labor and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41499735","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-03DOI: 10.1163/24714607-bja10119
N. Boavida, Isabel Roque, A. Moniz
The use of digital platforms for managing work grew considerably in Portugal, especially in the aftermath of the Great Recession. This new form of digital and platform work intensified the use of an on-demand workforce, not involved in the bargaining process, subject to indecent working conditions, social control and surveillance and the possibility of accessing social benefits, creating new obstacles for organising. Between 2019 and 2021, semi-structured interviews with workers, activists involved in associations and social movements, trade unionists and key informers were conducted. Also desk research involved five case-studies in Portugal, as part of a European research project. Results allowed to establish a typification of digital platform workers and to analyse collective action and voice in the country.
{"title":"Collective Voice and Organizing in Digital Labour Platforms in Portugal","authors":"N. Boavida, Isabel Roque, A. Moniz","doi":"10.1163/24714607-bja10119","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/24714607-bja10119","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The use of digital platforms for managing work grew considerably in Portugal, especially in the aftermath of the Great Recession. This new form of digital and platform work intensified the use of an on-demand workforce, not involved in the bargaining process, subject to indecent working conditions, social control and surveillance and the possibility of accessing social benefits, creating new obstacles for organising. Between 2019 and 2021, semi-structured interviews with workers, activists involved in associations and social movements, trade unionists and key informers were conducted. Also desk research involved five case-studies in Portugal, as part of a European research project. Results allowed to establish a typification of digital platform workers and to analyse collective action and voice in the country.","PeriodicalId":42634,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Labor and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43034273","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-03DOI: 10.1163/24714607-bja10120
R. Turaeva
This paper aims to introduce the concept of capitalising precarity to analyse the situation of precarious migration in migrant unfriendly contexts such as Russia. The material analysed in this paper concerns welfare and health inequalities in Russia. Welfare of labour migrants in Russia (both for internal Russian migrants and for foreign migrants) is de facto non-existent and largely self-organised by migrants themselves. State migration policies of Russia as well as welfare policies in the destination countries (Central Asia) are formulated in papers but in practice do not function to ensure some kind of wellbeing and social protection. Working conditions both at home (in Central Asia) and in destination countries (Russia and Kazakhstan) do not comply with average requirements of wellbeing of workers. I was shocked but not surprised to see Central Asian migrant workers in winter cleaning the roofs of Russian houses without any protection. The paper analyses the situation of intermixing of legal and informal practices which have a direct implication for wellbeing of migrants in Russia. The working conditions in Russia for both migrant and non-migrant labour violate basic principles of human rights. The paper also shows that even citizenship does not automatically provide direct access to social welfare where the latter is bound to the permanent registration (propiska). Continuous precarity is capital for other actors such as those who can profit from it such as police officers or other migrants themselves. The findings of this research contribute to the broader literature of labour and welfare in terms challenging the boundaries between citizenship and mobility.
{"title":"Capitalising Precarity: Wellbeing of Migrants in Russia","authors":"R. Turaeva","doi":"10.1163/24714607-bja10120","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/24714607-bja10120","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This paper aims to introduce the concept of capitalising precarity to analyse the situation of precarious migration in migrant unfriendly contexts such as Russia. The material analysed in this paper concerns welfare and health inequalities in Russia. Welfare of labour migrants in Russia (both for internal Russian migrants and for foreign migrants) is de facto non-existent and largely self-organised by migrants themselves. State migration policies of Russia as well as welfare policies in the destination countries (Central Asia) are formulated in papers but in practice do not function to ensure some kind of wellbeing and social protection. Working conditions both at home (in Central Asia) and in destination countries (Russia and Kazakhstan) do not comply with average requirements of wellbeing of workers. I was shocked but not surprised to see Central Asian migrant workers in winter cleaning the roofs of Russian houses without any protection. The paper analyses the situation of intermixing of legal and informal practices which have a direct implication for wellbeing of migrants in Russia. The working conditions in Russia for both migrant and non-migrant labour violate basic principles of human rights. The paper also shows that even citizenship does not automatically provide direct access to social welfare where the latter is bound to the permanent registration (propiska). Continuous precarity is capital for other actors such as those who can profit from it such as police officers or other migrants themselves. The findings of this research contribute to the broader literature of labour and welfare in terms challenging the boundaries between citizenship and mobility.","PeriodicalId":42634,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Labor and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48318309","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-21DOI: 10.1163/24714607-bja10121
Rebecca Prentice, Mahmudul H. Sumon
Abstract After the 2013 collapse of Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza garment manufacturing building, the Rana Plaza Arrangement ( rpa ) provided work-injury compensation benefits to injured survivors and the families of those killed, funded by global apparel brands. This article draws upon qualitative interviews with international stakeholders—including global brands, activists, and the International Labour Organization ( ilo )—who developed and implemented the rpa , and survivors who claimed compensation payments. We analyse the rpa as an experiment in transnational social protection, which attempted to recentre labour rights and state responsibility after three decades of neoliberal labour governance. Arguing that social protection can be a technocratic “fix” to restore and make tolerable an injurious economic system, we demonstrate the inherent paradox of attempting to integrate precarious labour into decent and dignified social protection. The rpa ’s many failures suggest that state commitment to regulation and organized labour power are necessary ingredients for successful transnational social protection.
{"title":"Social Protection as Technocratic Fix?: Labour Precarity and Crises of Capitalism after Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza Collapse","authors":"Rebecca Prentice, Mahmudul H. Sumon","doi":"10.1163/24714607-bja10121","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/24714607-bja10121","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract After the 2013 collapse of Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza garment manufacturing building, the Rana Plaza Arrangement ( rpa ) provided work-injury compensation benefits to injured survivors and the families of those killed, funded by global apparel brands. This article draws upon qualitative interviews with international stakeholders—including global brands, activists, and the International Labour Organization ( ilo )—who developed and implemented the rpa , and survivors who claimed compensation payments. We analyse the rpa as an experiment in transnational social protection, which attempted to recentre labour rights and state responsibility after three decades of neoliberal labour governance. Arguing that social protection can be a technocratic “fix” to restore and make tolerable an injurious economic system, we demonstrate the inherent paradox of attempting to integrate precarious labour into decent and dignified social protection. The rpa ’s many failures suggest that state commitment to regulation and organized labour power are necessary ingredients for successful transnational social protection.","PeriodicalId":42634,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Labor and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135089863","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-17DOI: 10.1163/24714607-bja10117
V. Murthy
This essay examines two readings of Hegel, namely Robyn Marasco’s The Highway of Despair: Critical Theory After Hegel and Stephen Houlgate’s Hegel On Being to construct a Hegelian political theory. From radically different perspectives, both books ask what it means to be “critical.” Some interpret being critical as implying avoiding ontological claims. Against this, I argue that Marxists should guard against reducing philosophy to history because this blinds us to the ontological conditions of historical narratives. Drawing on Houlgate’s book, the essay argues that by investigating general ontological conditions, one could construct a new critical theory of forms of consciousness. For example, through reading Hegel’s Logic and Phenomenology the essay suggests that recent experiences of despair might be connected to what Hegel calls the “unhappy consciousness,” which stems from both misunderstanding ontology and specific historical conditions. Radical political theories can mobilize despair when they understand its ontological and social conditions.
{"title":"Doubt, Despair and the Conditions of Left Hegelian Critical Theory","authors":"V. Murthy","doi":"10.1163/24714607-bja10117","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/24714607-bja10117","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This essay examines two readings of Hegel, namely Robyn Marasco’s The Highway of Despair: Critical Theory After Hegel and Stephen Houlgate’s Hegel On Being to construct a Hegelian political theory. From radically different perspectives, both books ask what it means to be “critical.” Some interpret being critical as implying avoiding ontological claims. Against this, I argue that Marxists should guard against reducing philosophy to history because this blinds us to the ontological conditions of historical narratives. Drawing on Houlgate’s book, the essay argues that by investigating general ontological conditions, one could construct a new critical theory of forms of consciousness. For example, through reading Hegel’s Logic and Phenomenology the essay suggests that recent experiences of despair might be connected to what Hegel calls the “unhappy consciousness,” which stems from both misunderstanding ontology and specific historical conditions. Radical political theories can mobilize despair when they understand its ontological and social conditions.","PeriodicalId":42634,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Labor and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-05-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44737793","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-26DOI: 10.1163/24714607-bja10115
Jude Kadri
There are three overlapping objectives in the article. The first objective is to present three different Marxist perspectives, while focusing on the interpretation of the base/superstructure dialectic which is the key to the understanding of Marxian political economy. The second objective is to make sense of the first and second “Cold Wars” based on the different interpretations of the base/superstructure dialectic. The last objective is to reassert the materialist essence of the base/superstructure dialectic by evoking Marx and his concepts of “Labor” and “Capital”. The three different perspectives are analyzed based on this reassertion. Through these three objectives, two deductions were made: the first deduction is that scientific Marxism requires the acknowledgement of the overdetermination of the economic base (its dominance in the last instance) in the analysis of abstractions, empirical and historical data. The “totality of the relations of production” within the economic base appears abstract in nature, but it represents the ontological category of “Labor” that defines human history since its beginning. It has a transhistorical essence. Human beings work together to produce their basic needs, according to historically specific (abstract) relations of production. The superstructure determines the specificity of the relations of production; it defines the “historical” side of the relations of production in the economic base. In the era of capitalism, “Capital” (the private appropriation of social wealth) is the dominant relation that comes to dictate the “totality of the relations of the production” within the economic base, through the superstructure. Total capital is then the real “subject” of history, and all abstractions gain purpose and practicality based on the class struggle between Labor and Capital. The second deduction relates to real history explained on the basis of the first deduction. Looking at the historical development of the class struggle against monopoly-finance capital (the centralized and concentrated capital) in the 20th century, the First Cold War never truly ended even though the global socialist ideology became weak and the ideological struggle against the imperialist superstructure watered down.
{"title":"Comparing the Two “Cold Wars” Through Gramsci, Althusser and Mao","authors":"Jude Kadri","doi":"10.1163/24714607-bja10115","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/24714607-bja10115","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000There are three overlapping objectives in the article. The first objective is to present three different Marxist perspectives, while focusing on the interpretation of the base/superstructure dialectic which is the key to the understanding of Marxian political economy. The second objective is to make sense of the first and second “Cold Wars” based on the different interpretations of the base/superstructure dialectic. The last objective is to reassert the materialist essence of the base/superstructure dialectic by evoking Marx and his concepts of “Labor” and “Capital”. The three different perspectives are analyzed based on this reassertion. Through these three objectives, two deductions were made: the first deduction is that scientific Marxism requires the acknowledgement of the overdetermination of the economic base (its dominance in the last instance) in the analysis of abstractions, empirical and historical data. The “totality of the relations of production” within the economic base appears abstract in nature, but it represents the ontological category of “Labor” that defines human history since its beginning. It has a transhistorical essence. Human beings work together to produce their basic needs, according to historically specific (abstract) relations of production. The superstructure determines the specificity of the relations of production; it defines the “historical” side of the relations of production in the economic base. In the era of capitalism, “Capital” (the private appropriation of social wealth) is the dominant relation that comes to dictate the “totality of the relations of the production” within the economic base, through the superstructure. Total capital is then the real “subject” of history, and all abstractions gain purpose and practicality based on the class struggle between Labor and Capital. The second deduction relates to real history explained on the basis of the first deduction. Looking at the historical development of the class struggle against monopoly-finance capital (the centralized and concentrated capital) in the 20th century, the First Cold War never truly ended even though the global socialist ideology became weak and the ideological struggle against the imperialist superstructure watered down.","PeriodicalId":42634,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Labor and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45860020","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-26DOI: 10.1163/24714607-bja10116
J. Wolf
Beginning in the early 1970s, various communist groups decided to become active at the Bremer Vulkan shipyard. The article shows that they did not immediately go for confrontation to older trade union structures but were willing to change the movement from within. With the support of a wildcat strike at the shipyard in 1973, the New Left raised the question of alternatives. As a result, the Social Democratic works council chairman resigned because of a lack of support from his colleagues, and in 1974 some communists were elected to the works council. I argue that there was no division into old and new but rather a diverse field of actors: a disparate group of workers with different occupational status, and political approaches; works councils and shop stewards with close ties to Bremen’s Social Democracy; and various communist groups that pursued very different policies and goals, sometimes joined forces, but basically fought each other—especially in conflicts—rather than taking joint action.
{"title":"Cross-Movement Strike Actions: Works Council and Communist Groups at the Bremer Vulkan Shipyard in the 1970s","authors":"J. Wolf","doi":"10.1163/24714607-bja10116","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/24714607-bja10116","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Beginning in the early 1970s, various communist groups decided to become active at the Bremer Vulkan shipyard. The article shows that they did not immediately go for confrontation to older trade union structures but were willing to change the movement from within. With the support of a wildcat strike at the shipyard in 1973, the New Left raised the question of alternatives. As a result, the Social Democratic works council chairman resigned because of a lack of support from his colleagues, and in 1974 some communists were elected to the works council. I argue that there was no division into old and new but rather a diverse field of actors: a disparate group of workers with different occupational status, and political approaches; works councils and shop stewards with close ties to Bremen’s Social Democracy; and various communist groups that pursued very different policies and goals, sometimes joined forces, but basically fought each other—especially in conflicts—rather than taking joint action.","PeriodicalId":42634,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Labor and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41773235","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-26DOI: 10.1163/24714607-bja10112
J. Silverman, Stanley Gacek
The Brazilian and US labor movements are currently confronting common challenges related to changes in the overall structure and profile of the working class, the elimination of traditional sources of financing, and the weakening of allied political forces in the electoral arena. Considering these joint trajectories, the authors will examine recent efforts by US-based and Brazilian labor movement actors to create spaces for strategic collaborations, two-way learning, and mutual solidarity, to support common political goals and efforts towards union renovation. The article analyzes three contemporary cases of US-Brazil union solidarity networks, in order to better understand how transnational union activism influences national-level outcomes. The authors posit that the success of these forms of activism is dependent on objective limits created by external economic and political conditions, yet in some circumstances non-transactional solidarity is capable of producing unexpected positive outcomes for workers and their union organizations.
{"title":"From Union Networks to Lula Livre: an Analysis of US – Brazil Trade Union Solidarity Movements in the 21st Century","authors":"J. Silverman, Stanley Gacek","doi":"10.1163/24714607-bja10112","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/24714607-bja10112","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The Brazilian and US labor movements are currently confronting common challenges related to changes in the overall structure and profile of the working class, the elimination of traditional sources of financing, and the weakening of allied political forces in the electoral arena. Considering these joint trajectories, the authors will examine recent efforts by US-based and Brazilian labor movement actors to create spaces for strategic collaborations, two-way learning, and mutual solidarity, to support common political goals and efforts towards union renovation. The article analyzes three contemporary cases of US-Brazil union solidarity networks, in order to better understand how transnational union activism influences national-level outcomes. The authors posit that the success of these forms of activism is dependent on objective limits created by external economic and political conditions, yet in some circumstances non-transactional solidarity is capable of producing unexpected positive outcomes for workers and their union organizations.","PeriodicalId":42634,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Labor and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44974715","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-26DOI: 10.1163/24714607-bja10108
Torkil Lauesen
This article aims to analyze the development of capitalism over a period of 500 years by the use of Mao’s concept: “The principal contradiction.” It is not an article about philosophy; the principal contradiction is presented as a working tool for analyzing and development of strategy. The article distills history into epochs characterized by changing principal contradictions. The correct identification of the principal contradiction and its interaction with secondary contradictions is the starting point of the development of a strategy, which can influence the aspect of the contradiction, in the desired direction. Finally is the relation between the contradiction in the capitalist mode of production and its expression in the changing principal contradictions discussed.
{"title":"The Principal Contradictions in the History of Capitalism","authors":"Torkil Lauesen","doi":"10.1163/24714607-bja10108","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/24714607-bja10108","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article aims to analyze the development of capitalism over a period of 500 years by the use of Mao’s concept: “The principal contradiction.” It is not an article about philosophy; the principal contradiction is presented as a working tool for analyzing and development of strategy. The article distills history into epochs characterized by changing principal contradictions. The correct identification of the principal contradiction and its interaction with secondary contradictions is the starting point of the development of a strategy, which can influence the aspect of the contradiction, in the desired direction. Finally is the relation between the contradiction in the capitalist mode of production and its expression in the changing principal contradictions discussed.","PeriodicalId":42634,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Labor and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41842914","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-26DOI: 10.1163/24714607-bja10113
L. Nierling, Bettina-Johanna Krings, Leon Küstermann
New forms of work via online platforms—here referred to as crowd work—have caused big shifts in the organization of work. This article addresses the question as to how the institutional and organizational conditions in crowd work have had an impact on it freelancers working at a platform in Germany. The article starts with a literature review on the settings of it freelancers in the 1990s—forming a spirit of optimism towards the it sector—which is followed by a review of current developments in crowd work with regard to worker’s autonomy and organizational control. We complement these findings with a qualitative interview case study from the year 2020 about the platform Upwork. Our aim is to analyze how previous expectations from the 1990s are related to societal and organizational processes of today. Based on our results we argue that for it freelancers closing processes, both on societal and organizational levels, prevail in the context of crowd work.
{"title":"it Freelancers as Knowledge Workers: Shifts in Working Conditions and Work Autonomy in Crowd Work","authors":"L. Nierling, Bettina-Johanna Krings, Leon Küstermann","doi":"10.1163/24714607-bja10113","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/24714607-bja10113","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000New forms of work via online platforms—here referred to as crowd work—have caused big shifts in the organization of work. This article addresses the question as to how the institutional and organizational conditions in crowd work have had an impact on it freelancers working at a platform in Germany. The article starts with a literature review on the settings of it freelancers in the 1990s—forming a spirit of optimism towards the it sector—which is followed by a review of current developments in crowd work with regard to worker’s autonomy and organizational control. We complement these findings with a qualitative interview case study from the year 2020 about the platform Upwork. Our aim is to analyze how previous expectations from the 1990s are related to societal and organizational processes of today. Based on our results we argue that for it freelancers closing processes, both on societal and organizational levels, prevail in the context of crowd work.","PeriodicalId":42634,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Labor and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43928191","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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