Flexible Employment and Alienation

Today’s market economy is undergoing a wave of transformation that has introduced both new opportunities and new challenges into society. Although digital platforms have provided new flexible job opportunities for millions of people, the lack of clear regulations and the blurring of boundaries between workers’ public and private spheres have led to the emergence of new types of social concerns and social problems. This session aims to bring together a group of scholars in order to discuss this new form of employment relationship and the consequences it has for employees. Of considerable importance are the various forms taken by the flexible labor market, particularly how it has become readily accessible by means of digital systems specifically designed for the recruitment and management of flexible workers. Against this background, this session will address such questions as new forms of employment; the theory and practice of flexible work; differing types of flexibility, including wage flexibility; the working conditions of those “flexibly employed”; and new types of supervision. Such issues related to ongoing changes in labor markets present new challenges for alienation theory, open up new possibilities for its further development, and enrich the field of empirical research. Both theoretical or empirical papers that focus on the range of consequences that work flexibility has for employees, with a focus on forms of alienation, are particularly welcome in the effort to develop a deeper understanding of the new flexible employment market that has emerged in modern societies.