Publicaties

Purpose – Revitalisation of Quality of Working Life (QWL) research points to non-standard work such as remote platform work as a compelling setting where research on QWL is needed. Whereas the literature on working conditions in remote work platforms is rich, knowledge on the topic is fragmented. This systematic review aims to synthesize and integrate findings from existing literature, to offer an encompassing and multidimensional understanding ...

Scholars have pointed to the rise of work arrangements that blur the dichotomy of paid and unpaid labour, namely the unpaid labour in paid employment. However, literature has been limited to theoretical understanding of the phenomenon and there has been a lack of measurement tool to empirically examine its form and extent. Addressing this gap in the literature, this chapter uses a mixed-method exploratory sequential approach, mixing qualitative ...

This article delves into freelancers’ ‘effort-bargain’ experiences within platform work, where effort is exchanged for income. The study of experiences enables us to understand how freelancer-platform relationships evolve based on freelancers’ skills. Drawing on 63 interviews across four platforms within the online labor market (OLM), we present a theoretical framework explaining a ‘skill-driven continuum’ in such relationships. At the one ...

Digital platforms provide many workers with vital income and offer the promise of flexible work, and yet also contribute to experiences of precariousness and exploitation, particularly with regard to pressures to undertake unpaid work. This article explores why unpaid labour is necessary and what drives its extent and form among diverse types of digital platforms. We theorize two ideal types of ‘open’ and ‘closed’ socio-technical platform ...

Research on platform work has primarily focused on analyzing how algorithmic management influences working conditions by empowering platforms to govern digitally-delivered services. However, prior research has overlooked the crucial aspect of how algorithmic management underlies platforms’ use of diverse contractual forms of employment available in the labor markets from where they source their workforces. Bridging this gap is vital to ...

The gig economy has attracted a lot of attention in the contemporary discourse in the social sciences. While there have been numerous – mostly qualitative – studies on the experience and the conditions of platform labour, the exploratory potential of biographical research has so far been overlooked. This article responds to this gap in research by presenting a case study of a French crowdworker, who was interviewed in the context of a larger ...

This article challenges positive views of the assumed relationships between skills, productivity and rewards in self-employed digital freelancing. It suggests that the upfront investments made by freelancers to build up positive platform ratings are not necessarily recouped in the form of increased autonomy, guaranteed work or more lucrative ‘gigs’. Drawing on 38 autobiographical narrative interviews and 12 audio working-diaries with diverse ...