New tech, old exploitation: Gig economy, algorithmic control and migrant labour

Lata, Lutfun Nahar; Burdon, Jasmine; Reddel, Tim

doi:10.1111/soc4.13028

Cited by 24 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…Slogans like “Be your own boss in any city of the world” (GuruWalk, 2023) or “be an independent professional” (Glovo Poland) attract workers, who are branded as “peers” and offered flexible jobs that align with their personal lifestyles (Minoia and Jokela, 2022). Despite this kind of branding, these gig workers are subjected to constant monitoring through gamification , turning their labour into a game-like series of tasks with scores, extra points and customer feedback (Lata et al , 2023). This intensifies labour processes and contributes to exploitative practices.…”

Section: Migrant Gig Workersmentioning

confidence: 99%

The labour consequences of Covid-19: migrant workers in tourism and hospitality

Janta,

Ladkin

2023

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Purpose This paper aims to examine the consequences of Covid-19 for the migrants and the tourism industry following the emergence of the new business models and operational practices in the following three areas: i) Covid-19 and post-Covid-19 labour shortages, ii) the development of migrant gig jobs and iii) future trends. Design/methodology/approach Covid-19 posed challenges for labour retention and has given rise to new outsourced and precarious forms of employment. The growth of various tourism-related apps and establishments, such as “ghost kitchens” or pop-up restaurants, has transformed the landscape of tourism work and opportunities. This short paper provides an overview of the labour consequences of Covid-19, focusing on migrant tourism workers. Findings Despite growing attention towards promoting sustainable, just and decent employment, global trends and changing industrial relations in the sector have led to heightened levels of precariousness and uncertainty in migrants’ work. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature on tourism employment by examining the forms of new business models and operational practices that affect migrant labour.

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Section: Migrant Gig Workersmentioning

confidence: 99%

The labour consequences of Covid-19: migrant workers in tourism and hospitality

Janta,

Ladkin

2023

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“…The grey area of whether platform businesses are employers or neutral intermediaries presents sites for worker commoditization and exploitation (Purcell & Brook, 2022). It is thus no surprise that assessments of such digitalized marketspaces have shown that they undermine the quality of customer outcomes (Lata et al, 2022). Kafka's work reveals the disregard that organizational structures often have for employees, especially in the lower rung of the hierarchy (McCabe, 2015).…”

Section: Frontline Employees -Lowered Stakesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contemporary challenges of consumption: a Kafkaesque and critical marketing perspective

Arora

2023

International Journal of Contemporary Management

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Purpose Markets are sites of collaboration as well as contestation between their various actors, including firms and consumers. In this respect, a narrative that consumers are more empowered than ever has been in vogue. Drawing from Kafka’s literature and philosophy and the paradigm of critical marketing, this paper argues for a broadened perspective. Design/methodology/approach Using a selective and exploratory-review approach, six dimensions of the state of today’s consumer emerge. These are subsequently assessed and developed as manifestations challenging the empowerment thesis. Findings The depiction of intense subjugation in Kafka’s fiction and the lack of agency his characters portray furnish narrative frames to view the paradoxical state of contemporary consumption. Specifically, consumer choice and sovereignty, service failures and recoveries, privacy concerns, the capitalist nexus, transformation in service provisioning modes, and frontline employees’ lowered stakes comprise six analytical frames of consumers’ lives that depict their paradoxical simultaneity of empowerment and entrapment. Originality/value The work contributes to critical marketing theory in particular and critical philosophy in general. Specifically, the proposed framework of consumption challenges depicted herein can serve as a mid-range theoretical taxonomy. The exemplar states highlighted reveal managerial and policy challenges.

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“…The study takes this empirical insight as a starting point to explore various migratory pathways into platform labour in the German capital Berlin. Building on literature that centres the precarious working conditions under algorithmic management (Ravenelle, 2019;Van Doorn, 2017;Veen et al, 2020) as well as the emerging research on the relationship between platform labour and migration (Lata et al, 2023;Van Doorn et al, 2022) this paper takes a deeper look at migrant trajectories to reveal distinct migration pathways and personal profiles of platform workers. Scrutinising the visa categories and legal statuses in platform work can indicate how migration regimes shape a worker's ability to find work and, in turn, supply a workforce to the emerging platform economy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stratified pathways into platform work: Migration trajectories and skills in Berlin’s gig economy

Orth

2023

Environ Plan A

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Platform labour scholars have noted the prevalence of migrant workers in the gig economy. This paper builds on this research but interrogates the broad concept of ‘migrant labour’. The study draws on biographical interviews with platform workers in grocery delivery and domestic work platforms in Berlin, Germany as well as expert interviews with union representatives, migrant organisations and white-collar platform company employees. Through an examination of the mobility strategies of platform workers in this subset of the platform economy, the study reveals a stratification of migrant trajectories and of skills needed to engage in platform work across different types of labour platforms. The study finds that platform companies draw on a workforce that consists of recently arrived young migrants with comparatively high education, language skills and digital literacy. Through close analysis of an understudied section of the gig economy, the paper contributes to the ongoing theorisation of the nexus of migration regimes and platform-mediated labour regimes. The findings complicate the notion of ‘accessibility’ of platform work and call for the inclusion of visa regimes, immigration categories and particular skill sets in future research on platform labour.

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New tech, old exploitation: Gig economy, algorithmic control and migrant labour

Cited by 24 publications

References 61 publications

The labour consequences of Covid-19: migrant workers in tourism and hospitality

The labour consequences of Covid-19: migrant workers in tourism and hospitality

Contemporary challenges of consumption: a Kafkaesque and critical marketing perspective

Stratified pathways into platform work: Migration trajectories and skills in Berlin’s gig economy

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