scholarly journals Risk Shifts in the Gig Economy: The Normative Case for an Insurance Scheme against the Effects of Precarious Work

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Friedemann Bieber ◽  
Jakob Moggia
Keyword(s):  
Insurance Scheme ◽  
Precarious Work ◽  
Gig Economy

Mechanisms of biopower and neoliberal governmentality in precarious work: Mobilizing the dependent self-employed as independent business owners

2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 375-398 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Moisander ◽  
Claudia Groß ◽  
Kirsi Eräranta
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Managerial Control ◽  
Precarious Work ◽  
Economic Agents ◽  
Direct Sales ◽  
Work Arrangements ◽  
Neoliberal Governmentality ◽  
Gig Economy ◽  
Self Worth

In the contemporary conditions of neoliberal governmentality, and the emerging ‘gig economy,’ standard employment relationships appear to be giving way to precarious work. This article examines the mechanisms of biopower and techniques of managerial control that underpin—and produce consent for—precarious work and nonstandard work arrangements. Based on an ethnographic study, the article shows how a globally operating direct sales organization deploys particular techniques of government to mobilize and manage its precarious workers as a network of enterprise-units: as a community of active and productive economic agents who willingly reconstitute themselves and their lives as enterprises to pursue self-efficacy, autonomy and self-worth as individuals. The article contributes to the literature on organizational power, particularly Foucauldian studies of the workplace, in three ways: (1) by building a theoretical analytics of government perspective on managerial control that highlights the nondisciplinary, biopolitical forms of power that underpin employment relations under the conditions of neoliberal governmentality; (2) by extending the theory of enterprise culture to the domain of precarious work to examine the mechanisms of biopower that underpin ongoing transformations in the sphere of work; and (3) by shifting critical attention to the lived experience of precarious workers in practice.

scholarly journals Defining the gig economy: platform capitalism and the reinvention of precarious work

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Montgomery ◽  
Simone Baglioni
Keyword(s):  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Precarious Work ◽  
Gig Economy ◽  
Key Stakeholders ◽  
Novel Concept ◽  
The Uk ◽  
New Forms Of Work

PurposeThis article seeks to answer the question: how should we conceptualise the “gig economy”? In doing so the authors shall explore if gig economy work should be understood as a novel concept that stands alone, a concept that is a subtype, or whether it may in fact be conceptually redundant.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conduct a thematic analysis of interview data drawn from 27 interviews with policymakers, trade union officials, key figures within labour organisations and gig economy workers.FindingsThe authors reveal how, from the perspective of key stakeholders, the concept of the gig economy exhibits a lack of “differentiation” from the long-established concept of precarious work of which it is best understood as a subtype.Research limitations/implicationsThe empirical findings from the authors’ study should be regarded as limited in terms of being situated in the specific employment context of the UK. Nevertheless, the implications of the study have a broader reach. The authors seek to provoke debate and discussion among scholars across disciplines and contexts working in the areas of precarious work and the gig economy. The authors’ analysis will be of interest to scholars who are concerned with how they conceptualise “new” forms of work.Originality/valueThe analysis offers a novel intervention by revealing how key stakeholders perceive the gig economy through a prism of continuity rather than change and connect it with broader processes of precarity.

scholarly journals Seeing the "Changing Nature of Work" through a Precarity Lens

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard W. Mallett
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Political Life ◽  
World Development Report ◽  
Residual Term ◽  
Precarious Work ◽  
Gig Economy ◽  
The World ◽  
World Development

This article reviews the concept of precarity and offers critical reflections on its contribution to thestudy of contemporary labour and livelihoods. A stock-take of key and recent literature suggeststhat, despite conceptual ambiguity and overstretching, “thinking with precarity” continues to provea valuable and worthwhile exercise – so long as that thinking is carefully articulated. This involvesunderstanding precarity as: 1) rooted in concrete labour market experiences but also connected tobroader anxieties over social and political life; 2) a process-focused concept rather than end-statedescriptor; and 3) speaking to longer histories and wider geographies than its commonplace statusas a residual term or category implies. The analytical advantages of thinking in such a way areillustrated through a critical analysis of the World Bank’s World Development Report 2019 on the“changing nature of work”, and in particular its handling of digital labour.KEYWORDS: precarious work; politics of precarity; livelihoods; digital labour; gig economy

Need for space. How artists rely on space to face precarious work conditions

2020 ◽  
pp. 164-185
Author(s):  
Damiano Razzoli ◽  
Stefano Rodighiero ◽  
Lorenzo Mizzau ◽  
Fabrizio Montanari
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Work Experience ◽  
Work Conditions ◽  
Reggio Emilia ◽  
Labour Markets ◽  
Precarious Work ◽  
Extant Literature ◽  
Gig Economy ◽  
The City

Artistic labour markets present some features that can be considered paradigmatic of work in the contemporary gig economy. Extant literature identified these features by focusing on how artists can be deemed exemplars of new and more flexible ways of organising a workforce. While studies examined workers' conditions in contemporary economy, the literature on artistic work has not delved into the role of space in artist's work experience. Thus, this study aims to look at how space can be harnessed by artistic workers to respond to the most pressing needs they express. To this end, the paper presents the results of a qualitative study conducted on young artistic workers in the city of Reggio Emilia. The authors propose three mechanisms (anchoring, framing, belonging) through which space can serve as a personal compass that helps mitigate the effects of the precariousness of work.

Working conditions in a precarious work environment - A global study of aviation workers

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Greiner ◽  
E. Rosskam ◽  
V. McCarthy ◽  
M. Mateski ◽  
L. Zsoldos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Work Environment ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Precarious Work ◽  
Global Study
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