Journal article
Good gig, bad gig: autonomy and algorithmic control in the global gig economy
- Abstract:
- This article evaluates the job quality of work in the remote gig economy. Such work consists of the remote provision of a wide variety of digital services mediated by online labour platforms. Focusing on workers in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, the article draws on semi-structured interviews in six countries (N = 107) and a cross-regional survey (N = 679) to detail the manner in which remote gig work is shaped by platform-based algorithmic control. Despite varying country contexts and types of work, we show that algorithmic control is central to the operation of online labour platforms. Algorithmic management techniques tend to offer workers high levels of flexibility, autonomy, task variety and complexity. However, these mechanisms of control can also result in low pay, social isolation, working unsocial and irregular hours, overwork, sleep deprivation and exhaustion.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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- Files:
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 160.9KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1177/0950017018785616
Authors
- Publisher:
- SAGE Publications
- Journal:
- Work, Employment and Society More from this journal
- Volume:
- 33
- Issue:
- 1
- Pages:
- 56–75
- Publication date:
- 2018-08-08
- Acceptance date:
- 2018-05-22
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1469-8722
- ISSN:
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0950-0170
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
-
pubs:856142
- UUID:
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uuid:7cc5dd8e-75a8-4af5-86ab-6ed6bd615e72
- Local pid:
-
pubs:856142
- Source identifiers:
-
856142
- Deposit date:
-
2018-06-06
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Wood, et al
- Copyright date:
- 2018
- Notes:
- This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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