Platform Institutions, Labour Processes and Collective Action In East Asia: Comparative Perspectives

This Open Session invites comparative papers on the platform economy in East Asia, treating digital platforms as economic institutions that reorganise markets, intermediation, value capture and the social relations of work. We seek analyses of how national and local regulatory regimes, platform business models, labour-market institutions and urban infrastructures shape everyday labour processes, income risks, algorithmic coordination, employment-status disputes and occupational safety across ride-hailing, delivery, care, domestic work, content moderation, cloudwork and platform-mediated logistics. Papers may examine Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Southeast Asian linkages or cross-border platform networks, and are encouraged to compare cases across countries, sectors or worker groups. We especially welcome research on how workers, unions, mutual-aid networks, litigation and policy coalitions generate new forms of collective voice within these economic arrangements. Connecting economic sociology, the sociology of work, political economy and social-movement analysis, the session asks how platform markets are institutionally embedded in East Asia and how workers navigate turbulent transformations of economic life.