Tech-mediated Labour

Summary

This project explores the interaction between tech-mediated labour and algorithmic management in platform-based digital marketplaces. We document the workers’ experiences in platform-based digital marketplaces, study labour’s strategies of resistance and strive to develop robust and sustainable digital marketplaces that are human-centred and community-driven through inclusive design practices.

Description

Algorithmic management in digital marketplaces not only streamlines consumer access to goods and services but also shapes increasingly precarious labor experiences. As the power imbalance between labor and capital deepens in platform-based digital marketplaces, there is a significant increase in labor unrest. Therefore, it is urgent to document laboring experiences and strategies of resistance, including protests, unionization, and the development of platform cooperatives or alternative platform-based digital marketplaces. This will help us better understand the challenges that workers face and design a more equitable system.

Subprojects:

Delivery Work and Unions

Housecleaners in Toronto

Papers

Dhar, Dipsita, and Ashique Ali Thuppilikkat. ‘Gendered Labour’s Positions of Vulnerabilities in Digital Labour Platforms and Strategies of Resistance: A Case Study of Women Workers’ Struggle in Urban Company, New Delhi’. Gender & Development 30, no. 3 (December 2022): 667–86. https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2022.2127574