542
Platform Work and Work at Amazon
Platform Work and Work at Amazon
Abstract Submissions Closed
Thursday, 25 February 2021: 10:45-12:15
Location:
RC44 Labor Movements (host committee)
Language: English
Session Type: Oral
Retail employment patterns across the globe have been radically transformed in recent years as a growing share of consumer purchases are made through on-line vendors rather than at brick-and-mortar stores. Amazon is by any standard the largest player in this arena, capturing large shares of the North American and European markets while attempting to grow elsewhere. Its distribution centers and the various delivery contractors it uses have seen explosive job growth, even as traditional forms of retail employment decline. The company is building on the employment model of traditional retailers in key respects, alternating between subcontracting out various tasks and increasing both horizontal and vertical integration. Moreover, it is rapidly standardizing work through massive technological investments. In other respects, Amazon is a departure from companies like Walmart, featuring a different labor process and distinctly new opportunities for worker disruption. Chiefly in Europe but also more recently in North America, workers have begun taking advantage of these opportunities, revealing the implications of logistics becoming a more central component of retail.
This proposal is for a session at which sociologists studying the experience of work in Amazon facilities around the world, and/or the experience of working for its subcontractors, will present their findings. The session will also include research on efforts to organize Amazon workers. These presentations will help clarify both what is old and what is new about this latest iteration of retail as well as the broader lessons research on Amazon offers for scholars of precarious, low-wage work.
Session Organizers: