Description
Book SynopsisSearching for paid tasks via digital labour platforms, such as Uber, Deliveroo and Fiverr, has become a global phenomenon and the regular source of income for millions of people. In the advent of digital labour platforms, this insightful book sheds new light on familiar questions about tensions between competition and cooperation, short-term gains and long-term success, and private benefits and public costs. Drawing on a wealth of knowledge from a range of disciplines, including law, management, psychology, economics, sociology and geography, it pieces together a nuanced picture of the societal challenges posed by the platform economy.
Chapters present a comprehensive, multidisciplinary overview of the rise of gig work, reflecting on long-term developments in the gig economy and incorporating contemporary developments into the rich theoretical and empirical literature on the topic. Charting new research territory, the book addresses key academic and policy challenges, arming readers with relevant analytical tools and practical solutions to face common problems. This book comprises a key reference for future research on the topic as well as critical policy measures for addressing challenges relating to gig work.
Offering an integrated outline of the latest insights, this book is crucial reading for scholars and researchers of the platform economy and gig work, outlining academic insights and empirical research, and illustrating a research agenda for future scholarship. The book’s comprehensive approach will also benefit policy-makers, managers and workers as they confront the platform economy’s wide variety of legal, economic and management challenges.
Trade Review‘Only a level playing field will make the platform economy work for everyone. Getting there requires a deep interdisciplinary understanding of the challenges - and potential solutions - involved. In bringing together a diverse group of scholars from a broad range of disciplines Platform Economy Puzzles
provides a wide range of excellent perspectives of interest to anyone interested in understanding how we got here – and what should happen next.‘Table of ContentsContents: Preface PART I SETTING THE STAGE – PLATFORM-MEDIATED GIG WORK IN CONTEXT 1 Platform economy puzzles: the need for a multidisciplinary perspective on gig work 2 Jeroen Meijerink, Giedo Jansen and Victoria Daskalova 2 Understanding the prevalence and nature of platform work: the measurement case in the COLLEEM survey study 19 Annarosa Pesole 3 The past, present and future of gig work 46 Jim Stanford 4 Labour protection for non-employees: how the gig economy revives old problems and challenges existing solutions 68 Victoria Daskalova, Shae McCrystal and Masako Wakui PART II UNPACKING PLATFORM ECONOMY PUZZLES – ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL EXCHANGES IN PLATFORM-MEDIATED GIG WORK 5 Platform urbanism and infrastructural surplus 101 Aaron Shapiro 6 Dual value production as key to the gig economy puzzle 123 Niels van Doorn and Adam Badger 7 Online labour platforms, human resource management and platform ecosystem tensions: an institutional perspective 140 Anne Keegan and Jeroen Meijerink 8 Multi-party working relationships in gig work: towards a new perspective 162 James Duggan, Ultan Sherman, Ronan Carbery and Anthony McDonnell PART III SOLUTIONS AND CONCLUSIONS 9 Gigs of their own: reinventing worker cooperativism in the platform economy and its implications for collective action 188 Damion Jonathan Bunders 10 The politics of platform work: representation in the age of digital labour 209 Paul Jonker-Hoffrén and Giedo Jansen 11 Conclusion: solutions to platform economy puzzles and avenues for future research 229 Giedo Jansen, Victoria Daskalova and Jeroen Meijerink Index
