6 episodes
Platform Predicament – Making sense of a datafied future of work IT for Change
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- Society & Culture
The largest businesses of the world today are set up on the platform model. It is often said that the modern-day capitalist does not own the means of production, but the means of “connection”, and that’s exactly what platform companies such as Amazon, Uber, DoorDash, TopCoder and Zomato do.
It’s worth noting, that Since 2010, there has been a five-fold rise globally in the number of such digital labour platforms that facilitate online work The global south has a large part of this share.
These platform companies are the new, invisible bosses in this datafied world of work, relying heavily on the network effects of data, and algorithmic management tools, to capture vast markets in their respective sectors. While the innovation such platforms have brought in is admirable, it brings with it many important implications for labour law, workers’ data rights, data governance and corporate governance.
Brought to you by IT for Change and supported by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) and Fair Green Global (FGG), this podcast series explores the very bold and very quick changes taking place in the labour economy today, driven by rapid digitalisation and platformisation of the workplace.
Over the course of the series, we listen to experts viz. labour economy researchers, trade unionists, platform workers, and platform founders, to understand the origins of platform based work, how “gig work” intersects with it, what this means for the employment question right now as well as in the coming years, the power that data holds in this work model and who holds power over it, what issues of labour rights and data rights of workers emerge, and also what alternative models of platform based work are coming up in different parts of the world, to counter some of the criticisms of the current platform model.
Join us as we break down this Podcast Predicament, and attempt to make sense of this datafied future of work.
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Ep 3: Making Platforms Work for Workers - Data Commons and Platform Cooperatives
The third episode talks about possible alternatives to the neoliberal platform-based model of work that is prevalent, today. As examples, the episode highlights SEWA's ongoing journey of evolving the platform model according to its members' needs, Labournet’s pilot platforms geared towards making platform-based work transparent and more regularised for gig workers and the story of Equal Care Co-op, a platform that’s making care work in the UK more decentralised, and humane.
This podcast series is brought to you by IT for Change, and supported by Friederich Ebert Stiftung (FES) and Fair Green Global (FGG).
Host: Sonakshi Agarwal (IT for Change)
Guest Speakers:
Jalajakshi CK (Labournet)Salonie Hiriyadur (SEWA Cooperative Federation)Emma Back (Equal Care)References and Additional Readings:
1. Platform Cooperativism - Challenging the Corporate Sharing Economy (Trebor Scholz) - https://monoskop.org/images/5/5b/Scholz_Trebor_Platform_Cooperativism_Challenging_the_Corporate_Sharing_Economy.pdf
2. Why Platform Cooperatives have yet to challenge Big Tech (Tech Monitor) - https://techmonitor.ai/policy/big-tech/why-platform-cooperatives-have-yet-to-challenge-big-tech
3. [video] Unpacking Digitization, Data Governance and Cooperatives in India (IT for Change) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZigJseA3PU
4. Labournet - https://www.labournet.in/
5. Equal Care Co-op - https://www.equalcare.coop/
6. SEWA Cooperative Federation - https://www.sewafederation.org/ -
Teaser for Episode 3 - Making Platforms Work for Workers: Data Commons and Platform Cooperatives
The third episode talks about possible alternatives to the neoliberal platform-based model of work that is prevalent, today. As examples, the episode highlights SEWA's ongoing journey of evolving the platform model according to its members' needs, Labournet’s pilot platforms geared towards making platform-based work transparent and more regularised for gig workers and the story of Equal Care Co-op, a platform that’s making care work in the UK more decentralised, and humane.
This podcast series is brought to you by IT for Change, and supported by Friederich Ebert Stiftung (FES) and Fair Green Global (FGG).
Host: Sonakshi Agarwal (IT for Change)
Guest Speakers:
Jalajakshi CK (Labournet)Salonie Hiriyadur (SEWA Cooperative Federation)Emma Back (Equal Care) -
Ep 2: Who Run the World (of platforms)? Algorithmic Bosses and Workers’ Rights
The second episode delves into the power that algorithms and data hold, in running this platform model of work. Experts explain how algorithmic management and control by platform apps has major implications for working conditions and worker autonomy, and how workers’ groups, through new-age organising, are negotiating workers’ rights in this algorithmmified world of work.
This podcast series is brought to you by IT for Change, and supported by Friederich Ebert Stiftung (FES) and Fair Green Global (FGG).
Host – Sonakshi Agarwal (IT for Change)
Expert Speakers:
Shaikh Salauddin (Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers)Basudev Barman (International Transport Workers’ Federation)Spandan Pratyush (All India Gig Workers Union)Gayatri Singh (Senior Advocate)Salonie Hiriyadur (SEWA Cooperative Federation)Uma Rani (International Labour Organisation)
References and Additional Reading:
1. Workers’ Data Rights in the Platformised Workspace (IT for Change) - https://itforchange.net/node/2031
2. The Macro Frames of Microwork: A Study of Indian women workers on AMT in the post-pandemic moment (IT for Change) - https://itforchange.net/sites/default/files/1739/The-Macro-Frames-of-Microwork-Full-Report-ITfC-2021.pdf
3. WeClock – The app for workers (The Why Not Lab) - https://www.thewhynotlab.com/post/weclock
4. 10 Principles for Workers’ Data Rights and Privacy (UNI Global Union) - https://uniglobalunion.org/report/principles-for-workers-data-rights/
5. R198 - Employment Relationship Recommendation, 2006 (International Labour Organisation) - https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_INSTRUMENT_ID:312535
6. ‘We’re being pushed into poverty’: Voices of women who took on the unicorn start-up Urban Company (Scroll) - https://scroll.in/magazine/1014700/were-being-pushed-into-poverty-voices-of-women-who-took-on-the-unicorn-start-up-urban-company -
Teaser for episode 2: Who Run the World (of platforms)? Algorithmic Bosses and Workers’ Rights
The second episode delves into the power that algorithms and data hold, in running this platform model of work. Experts explain how algorithmic management and control by platform apps has major implications for working conditions and worker autonomy, and how workers’ groups, through new-age organising, are negotiating workers’ rights in this algorithmmified world of work.
This podcast series is brought to you by IT for Change, and supported by Friederich Ebert Stiftung (FES) and Fair Green Global (FGG).
Host – Sonakshi Agarwal (IT for Change)
Expert Speakers:
Shaikh Salauddin (Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers)Basudev Barman (International Transport Workers’ Federation)Spandan Pratyush (All India Gig Workers Union)Gayatri Singh (Senior Advocate)Salonie Hiriyadur (SEWA Cooperative Federation)Uma Rani (International Labour Organisation) -
Ep 1: Platforms - The Origin Story
In this first episode, we begin our journey to understand platformisation and its implications. We start by exploring how it all began - what the advent of technology has meant for the labour market, how the emergence of platform based work has been an important implication of it and why it’s gained such traction. We speak to labour economists and trade unionists to understand what platforms are, how and why platform-based gig work has gained popularity over the years, and what it means for the future of work especially in Global South countries.
This podcast series is brought to you by IT for Change, and supported by Friederich Ebert Stiftung (FES) and Fair Green Global (FGG).
Host: Sonakshi Agarwal (IT for Change)
Guest Speakers:
Uma Rani (International Labour Organisation)
Salonie Hiriyadur (SEWA Federation)
Paaritosh Nath (Azim Premji University)
Basudev Barman (International Transport Workers’ Federation)
Spandan Pratyush (All India Gig Workers’ Union)
References and additional reading:
1. World Employment and Social Outlook - The role of digital labour platforms in transforming the world of work (ILO)
https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---publ/documents/publication/wcms_771749.pdf
2. World Development Report 2019 THE CHANGING NATURE OF WORK
https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2019
3. Decent work in the platform economy - Background document for the Meeting of experts on decent work in the platform economy (Geneva, 10–14 October 2022) (ILO)
https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/non-standard-employment/whatsnew/WCMS_855048/lang--en/index.htm
4. Inputs to ILO meeting of experts on decent work in the platform economy (IT for Change)
https://itforchange.net/sites/default/files/add/ITfC-Policy-Inputs-on-Data-Rights-Decent-Work.pdf
5. Platform Planet – Development in the Intelligence Economy (IT for Change)
https://projects.itforchange.net/platformpolitics/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Platform-Planet-Development-in-the-Intelligence-Economy_ITfC_2019.pdf -
Teaser for episode 1: Platforms - The Origin Story
Teaser for episode 1 of our podcast series, the Platform Predicament - making sense of a datafied future of work.
This podcast series is brought to you by IT for Change, and supported by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) and Fair Green Global (FGG).