Theorising the connections and continuities between gig labour/economies and platform urbanism

理论化零工/经济与平台城市化之间的联系和连续性

• 批准号: NE/T014172/1
• 负责人: Philippa Williams
• 金额: $ 1.69万
• 依托单位: Queen Mary University of London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FT014172%2F1
• 关键词: Theorising; connections; continuities; between; gig

In recent years, there has been a tremendous shift in the use of digital technologies in work, with the internet becoming a key facilitator in the organisation of work itself. This includes "on-demand work", a locally place-based form of work in which 'self-employed' workers are hired using digital platforms (or applications) to carry out in-person services on a per-gig basis. The on-demand economy now has an expanding global presence, with the growing and widespread use of ridesharing platforms such as Uber and Ola, food-delivery platforms such as Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Zomato and home-task platforms such as TaskRabbit and Housekeep. On-demand work has proliferated largely in urban spaces across the globe, with the growing recognition that digital platforms are transforming the nature of cities. As platform enterprises become more embedded in the fabric of cities, the resulting flexibilization of work has phenomenal impacts on urban residents. With numerous legal cases emerging worldwide to understand whether these service platforms are in fact employers or 'aggregators' linking customers to a 'service provider' as they claim, the relevance of understanding the relationship between platforms and the urban space is now more prominent, than ever. The significance of this project is rooted in its aim to develop new, relevant and nuanced understandings of the changing nature of urban space and work as a result of the growing prominence of on-demand platforms in cities, an integrated perspective which is missing from scholarly literature. Developing a new theory to integrate the co-extensive phenomena of platform urbanism and on-demand work will provide relevant and applicable ways for scholars and practitioners to understand the contemporary social relations of cities and urban denizens. Analysing numerous cases of platform economy manifestations, and mobilizing postcolonial and feminist approaches to think about on-demand service platforms in urban spaces, the project seeks to provide insights into a more egalitarian and less-exploitative platform politics, recommending ways in which labour rights including security and welfare can be 'built into' these platforms in different contexts. Developing nuanced narratives and addressing approaches required for different types of work platforms - e.g. transport, food-delivery, domestic work, care work, home services - the project will present recommendations in the form of a whitepaper brief which will be submitted for publication with the Centre for International Governance innovation (CIGI). This can be taken up by scholars, practitioners, government and other experts in the three areas that the research will be primarily focused on and that the researchers have links to - Canada, the UK and India. Providing contextual comparisons and insights from these contexts will contribute to an understanding of how cities across the globe are changing, and how Canada's cities can learn from, or provide learnings to, others. Working with Dr Leszczynski - whose current SSHRC-funded work looks at on-demand service platforms in the Canadian context - will facilitate cross-comparison insights through which we can use examples from outside of Canada to understand the contemporary transformations of Canadian cities. It will also enable me to take learnings from the Canadian context, which can be applied to cities in UK and India.

近年来，数字技术在工作中的使用发生了巨大的变化，互联网成为组织工作本身的关键推动者。这包括“按需工作”，这是一种以当地为基础的工作形式，即使用数字平台(或应用程序)雇用“自雇”工人，在每一份工作的基础上提供面对面的服务。随着Uber和Ola等拼车平台、Uber Eats、Deliveroo和Zomato等外卖平台以及TaskRabbit和Home Keeping等家庭任务平台的日益广泛使用，按需经济如今在全球范围内的影响力不断扩大。随着越来越多的人认识到数字平台正在改变城市的性质，按需工作在很大程度上在全球城市空间激增。随着平台企业越来越多地融入城市结构，由此带来的工作灵活性对城市居民产生了显著的影响。随着全球范围内涌现出无数的法律案件，以了解这些服务平台实际上是雇主还是像他们所声称的那样将客户与“服务提供商”联系在一起的“聚合器”，理解平台与城市空间之间的关系的相关性现在比以往任何时候都更加突出。该项目的重要意义在于其目的是对城市空间和工作性质的变化产生新的、相关的和细致入微的理解，这是由于按需平台在城市中日益突出的结果，这是学术文献中缺失的综合视角。发展一种新的理论来整合平台城市化和按需工作的共同扩展现象，将为学者和实践者理解当代城市和城市居民的社会关系提供相关和适用的途径。该项目分析了许多平台经济的表现形式，并动员后殖民主义和女权主义的方法来思考城市空间中的按需服务平台，试图为更平等、更少剥削的平台政治提供见解，并建议如何在不同的背景下将包括安全和福利在内的劳工权利‘嵌入’这些平台。为不同类型的工作平台--例如运输、送餐、家务工作、护理工作、家庭服务--制定细致入微的叙述和所需的方法，该项目将以白皮书简要的形式提出建议，并提交国际治理创新中心出版。学者、从业者、政府和其他专家可以在这项研究将主要关注的三个领域--加拿大、英国和印度--开展这项研究，研究人员与这三个领域有联系。提供背景比较和对这些背景的洞察将有助于了解全球城市正在如何变化，以及加拿大城市如何向其他城市学习或向其他城市提供学习。与Leszczynski博士合作-他目前由SSHRC资助的工作着眼于加拿大背景下的按需服务平台-将促进交叉比较洞察，通过这些洞察，我们可以使用加拿大以外的例子来了解加拿大城市的当代变化。它还将使我能够从加拿大的背景中学习，这可以适用于英国和印度的城市。