Does the macro-level matter? A comparative analysis of institutional frameworks and gigwork platforms across EU-28 countries

拟议项目的目标是调查和了解国家体制框架与千兆工作平台的关系。具体来说，我们专注于运输、食品配送和住宿服务的千兆工作平台，这些平台为数字中间、基于位置的有偿工作任务提供了突出的案例--通常被称为“千兆工作”。Gigwork已经受到了全欧洲公众的关注，特别是通过Uber、Airbnb和Airbnb等知名和示范性平台公司的活动。虽然一些研究人员认为千兆工作平台实际上违反了监管，但其他既定方法表明，国家制度框架影响了经济活动，可能包括千兆工作平台上的工作。到目前为止，我们对国家机构框架是否以及如何与欧洲各国的千兆工作平台活动相关知之甚少。为了解决这一研究差距，该项目调查了欧盟28国的制度框架和千兆工作平台之间的系统性相互关系。该项目分析了国家体制框架可能缓和千兆工作平台的限制和可能性的机制，以渗透到工作实践中，并通过其平台模型提供工作努力。除了应用定性的、历史上比较的过程跟踪方法外，该项目还应用了一种新的定量跨国研究方法。这种方法将众包平台上的数据收集任务外包给国外的母语人士。收集到的数据将合并成国家一级的数据集，并采用定量方法进行分析。研究结果将描绘国家机构框架和千兆工作平台之间的相互关系，并识别这些相互关系的跨国模式和基本机制。为实现优先计划第一阶段（SPP 2267）的总体目标，该拟议项目采用社会学方法将工作世界的数字化作为一种系统性变革，重点关注宏观层面的流程和机制。该项目克服了千兆工作研究领域的分散状态，并开发了一个总体的比较视角。该项目将有助于解决宏观层面是否以及如何与工作世界中的数字化过程相关的一般问题。在这里，gigwork的例子将展示从制度上规范工作世界数字化的可能性和局限性。

The goal of the proposed project is to investigate and understand how national institutional frameworks relate to gigwork platforms. Specifically, we focus on gigwork platforms for transport, food-delivery and lodging services that provide salient cases for digitally intermediate, location-based, paid, work tasks - often called “gigwork.” Gigwork has received Europe-wide public attention, especially through the activities of prominent and exemplary platform companies, like Uber, Deliveroo and Airbnb. While some researchers assume that gigwork platforms effectively defy regulation, other established approaches suggest that national institutional frameworks shape economic activities, potentially including work on gigwork platforms. To date, we know very little about if and how national institutional frameworks are relevant to the activities of gigwork platforms across various European countries. Addressing this research gap the project investigates the systematic interrelations between institutional frameworks and gigwork platforms across EU-28 countries. The project analyses the mechanisms by which national institutional frameworks might moderate the limits and possibilities for gigwork platforms to permeate work practices and make work efforts available through their platform models. Alongside an application of qualitative, historically comparative process tracing methods, the project applies a novel method for quantitative cross-national research. This method contracts out data collection tasks on crowdsourcing platforms to native speakers abroad. The collected data will be combined into a country-level data set and analysed with quantitative methods. The results will map the interrelations between national institutional frameworks and gigwork platforms, and discern cross-national patterns and underlying mechanisms of these interrelations.Contributing to the overall aims of the first phase of the Priority Programme (SPP 2267) this proposed project engages in a sociological approach to the digitalization of working worlds as a systemic transformation, focusing on macro-level processes and mechanisms. The project overcomes the fragmented state of the research field on gigwork and develops an overarching, comparative perspective. The project will contribute to the general question, if and how the macro-level bears relevance to digitalization processes in the working world. Here, the gigwork examples will showcase the possibilities and limits of institutionally regulating the digitalization of working worlds.