Collaborative Research: HCC: Small: The Market is the Interface: Online Labor Platforms and Contingent Knowledge Work

这项纵向研究探讨了在线劳动力平台重塑工作的方式，重点是他们如何维持其市场决策角色，以及工人和雇主如何适应这些变化。鉴于知识工作在美国经济中的中心地位，以及当前疫情的教训，研究结果将为政策制定者提供信息，并有助于正在进行的关于工作、劳动力和经济的辩论。该研究将通过三种方式实现这一目标：（1）更好地理解平台架构设计和市场适应性，这两者对于加强劳动力市场和支持工人和雇主都至关重要。(2)对工人和雇主的工作安排和数字化依赖劳动力战略的新兴结构有更深入的了解，以指导培训，教育，政策制定和对未来工作新兴形式的现场支持。(3)具体分析在线做市平台在纠正、加剧或改变对女工和代表性不足人口的工人的差别待遇方面所能发挥的每一种作用。这项研究将大大推进目前对在线劳动力市场界面复制和解决劳动力获取方面已知差异的方式的理解，部分原因是工人的性别，种族和民族。数据收集集中在一种类型的偶然知识工作：通过支持人机交互并实现双边劳动力市场的在线劳动力平台进行的在线自由职业。自由职业者（出售他们的服务）和雇主（寻求卖家的服务）通过市场平台提供的不同界面进行互动，使其成为谈判空间。也就是说，对在线劳动力的研究也是对做市、平台架构以及人类和基于计算机的系统交互的研究。基于现有的研究成果和相关文献，本研究提出了三个主要的研究问题：（1）在线劳动力平台如何维持其市场决策角色？(2)自由职业者如何适应平台上的变化？(3)雇主如何适应平台上的变化？调查结果将为劳动力市场创造新形式的数字化劳动基础设施提供变革性的透镜。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This longitudinal study examines the ways in which online labor platforms are reshaping work, with a focus on how they sustain their market-making roles, and how workers and employers adapt to these changes. Given the centrality of knowledge work to the U.S. economy, and the lessons of the current pandemic, findings will inform policy makers and contribute to ongoing debates on work, labor and the economy. The research will accomplish this in three ways: (1) Better understanding of platform architecture design and market adaptation, both critical to strengthening labor markets and supporting both workers and employers. (2) Deeper insights on the emerging structures of working arrangements and digitally-reliant labor strategies, for both workers and employers, to guide training, educating, policy-formation, and worksite support for an emerging form of future work. (3) Specific analysis of each role that online market-making platforms can play in redressing, exacerbating, or transforming known issues with differential treatment of women workers and workers from under-represented populations. The research will significantly advance current understanding about the ways that online labor market interfaces both replicate and address known differences in access to labor due, in part, to the worker's gender, race, and ethnicity. Data collection focuses on one type of contingent knowledge work: online freelancing conducted through online labor platforms that support human-computer interactions and enable a two-sided labor market. Freelancers (who sell their services) and employers (who seek the services of sellers) interact through the different interfaces provided by the market-making platforms, rendering this a negotiating space. That is, a study of online labor is also a study of market making, platform architecture, and humans and computer-based systems interacting. Building from current work and the relevant literature, this study pursues three primary research questions: (1) How does an online labor platform sustain its market-making role? (2) How do freelancers adapt to changes on a platform? (3) How do employers adapt to changes on a platform? Findings will provide a transformative lens into the ways in which labor markets are creating a new form of digitally-reliant labor infrastructure.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.