Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Multi-Method Comparative Study of Uber Drivers

本奖项为博士论文改进奖。它支持一个项目，调查优步司机的工作经历，以及关于他们和他们的工作的法律纠纷。调查人员今年在波士顿对优步司机进行了广泛的人种学实地研究，他们发现优步的算法在很大程度上对员工的工作方式产生了巨大的影响，它揭示了某些信息，但隐瞒了其他信息。在这项拨款支持的项目中，研究人员将把他们的抽样方法、访谈协议和分析编码扩展到丹麦哥本哈根，以进行比较。他们的目标是理解Uber在另一个政治经济体（社会民主主义）中崛起的“数字工人阶级”，他们对城市交通有着不同的规范（对骑自行车的强烈文化偏好），并且在不同的法律体系和法律意识下。这项研究将为对管理劳动力及其活动感兴趣的学术和政策受众提供见解。研究结果将在为专家和非专业读者撰写的几篇文章中报告，并将作为一本书出版的博士论文的一部分。研究人员将通过比较优步员工在美国（波士顿）和丹麦（哥本哈根）两国背景下的经验定性数据，努力弥合对技术带来的新型工作的理解差距。他们计划收集和分析人种学数据，以及历史和当代关于劳工的法律纠纷，特别是关于乘车租赁的法律纠纷。作为社会学家和STS学者，调查人员对信息经济中个人与组织（包括监管组织）之间的关系感兴趣。虽然随后的法律案件集中在诸如是否将“按需”工人归类为雇员或承包商以及所提供的服务是否安全等问题上，但调查人员将重点关注与阶级和权力、公平和公平以及新技术出现时的设计和使用有关的潜在辩论。

General Audience Summary This award is a doctoral dissertation improvement grant. It supports a project investigating the work experience of Uber drivers and the legal disputes about them and their work. The investigators conducted an extensive ethnographic field study of Uber drivers this year in Boston, and they discovered that Uber's algorithms yield great power over how workers work largely, by revealing certain pieces of information but concealing others. In the project supported by this grant, the investigators will extend their sampling method, interview protocol, and analytic coding to Copenhagen, Denmark, for comparative purposes. They aim to understand Uber's emergent "digital working class" in another political economy (a social democracy), with different norms concerning urban transportation (a strong cultural preference for bicycling), and under a different legal system and legal consciousness. The research will generate insights for academic and policy audiences interested in regulating this workforce and its activity. The results will be reported in several articles written for both specialist and non-specialist audiences, and contribute to a doctoral dissertation to be later published as a book.Technical SummaryThe investigators will work towards bridging a gap in understanding about new kinds of work that are emerging consequent to technology by comparing qualitative data about the experience of Uber workers in two national contexts, the US (Boston) and Denmark (Copenhagen). They plan to acquire and analyze ethnographic data alongside historical and contemporary legal disputes about labor in general and ride-for-hire in particular. As sociologists and STS scholars, the investigators are interested in the relationship between individuals and organizations, including regulatory ones, in the information economy. While ensuing legal case have focused on questions such as whether to classify "on-demand" workers as employees or contractors and whether the service provided is safe, the investigators will focus on underlying debates having to do with class and power, equity and fairness, and design and use in the emergence of new technology.