745
Organizing in a Gig Economy: Atomized Work and the Labor Movement

Wednesday, 18 July 2018: 10:30-12:20
Location: 703 (MTCC SOUTH BUILDING)
RC44 Labor Movements (host committee)

Language: English

The consequences of the algorithmic revolution for work and labor movements are wide-ranging but we are only beginning to grapple with them. As the political scientist Ruth Collier notes, at a macro level, it is associated with rising inequality, disruption of many economic sectors, and the destruction of numerous jobs as well as the creation of others.  At the micro level, it is generating a particular type of employment relations, often involving widely dispersed workers who are compensated (and sometimes see themselves) more as “micro-entrepreneurs” than employees. This atomized workforce challenges unions and undermines traditional models of collective action. These trends are not limited to advanced economies but are shaping work in countries of the global south as well. This session invites both theoretically engaged and empirically rich papers that examine this new world of work and collective action.
Session Organizer:
Kim VOSS, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Chair:
Kim VOSS, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Oral Presentations
745.1
Labor Platform Gig Workers & Collective Action: An Empirical Analysis from Uber Drivers in the U.S.
Ruth COLLIER, University of California, Berkeley, USA; Veena DUBAL, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, HASTINGS College of the Law, USA; Christopher CARTER, University of California, Berkeley, USA
745.2
Emerging Forms of Collectivity Among App-Based Transport Workers in Indonesia
Michele FORD, The University of Sydney, Australia; Vivian HONAN, The University of Sydney, Australia
745.3
Organizing the Workerpreneurs in the Algorithmic Management Era
Rabih JAMIL, Département de Sociologie, Université de Montréal, Canada; Yanick NOISEUX, Département de Sociologie, Université de Montréal, Canada
745.4
Platform Capitalism, Millennials, and an Online Labor Movement? Flexibilization from a Labor Perspective
Jamie MCCALLUM, Middlebury College, USA; Katherine MAICH, The Pennsylvania State University, USA
745.5
"Balancing the “Gig Economy” Spirit? How Local Labor Unions Cope with Workforce Atomization & Entrepreneurial Culture "
David SANSON, Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) - Lyon, France
Distributed Papers
745.6
Political Struggles in the Sharing Economy: The Case of Airbnb and Barcelona
Luke YATES, University of Manchester, United Kingdom
745.7
Organizing labour at chokepoints: labour struggles against casualization at sea- and airport terminals in Portugal.
Anne ENGELHARDT, Kassel University, Germany
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