The hidden abode of reproduction – care and the platform economy - Dr Kendra Briken, Strathclyde Business School

Event Date: 19 February 2020

Speaker: Dr Kendra Brikern, Strathclyde Business School

Time: 2-3pm

Venue: Strathclyde Business School, Cathedral Wing, Room CW602

Despite the rapid platform takeover of reproductive work, i.e. child and elderly care, domestic work and sex work, there has been little research to date on the way in which the vulnerabilities and opportunities of platform work are shaped by gender, race and class. Public debates on the ‘gig economy’ have overwhelmingly focused on unicorn startups such as Uber and Deliveroo which have a predominantly male workforce.

Yet, in the UK, women make up over half of gig workers (52% Huws et al 2017) and their experiences have been overlooked. This gap critically limits the ability of policy-makers and trade unions or campaigning organisations to understand the economic, social and working conditions of those using platforms and apps to work in the context of broader labour market issues. There is need for a deeper understanding of how these technologies come to reproduce the rigid gendered and unequal labour markets where the hidden work of migrant and BAME women in low-income home service sectors remains invisible, undervalued, underpaid and under-protected. There is potential for the exploitative dynamics of these sectors to be amplified as, for example, online profiles and rating systems generate new forms of abuse and discrimination (Mateescu and Ticona 2018) or platform mediation enables wage theft and the further erosion of protections (Van Doorn, 2017). The project focusses on the care and domestic services in particular as the most vulnerable sectors prone to platform take-over.  The talk will outline our analytical framework and critically discuss the challenges of doing research in the hidden digital workplace.

The project ‘Who cares? Platform Work and Low-income home service work in the digital economy‘ is funded by the EPSRC Not-Equal program

Published: 11 February 2020