Should we take the gig economy seriously?

ABSTRACT

The ‘gig economy’ has emerged rapidly as a form of service delivery that challenges existing business models, labour-management practices, and regulations. The ways in which platform companies transact with workers, in particular, has created a burgeoning public interest, but has yet to give rise to a corresponding academic literature. In this paper, we ask whether the gig economy deserves to be a subject of employment relations scholarship, given its current dimensions and likely future. We argue that academic analysis is needed, to better understand the power dynamics operating within the gig economy and how these are testing existing norms and institutions. We discuss two mains ways that employment relations researchers can expand their theoretical repertoires and, in doing so, improve the evidence on gig-based working arrangements. We begin to sketch the outlines of a systematic research agenda, by elaborating indicative questions that need addressing to advance understanding of ‘gig work relations’. We caution, however, that academic analysis of the gig economy should not be predicated on an expectation that it is the future of work. A number of economic, industrial and political factors threaten to slow or halt the gig economy’s growth.

KEYWORDS:

• Gig economy
• labour market regulation
• future of work
• precariat
• unions

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joshua Healy

Joshua Healy is a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Workplace Leadership at the University of Melbourne. His research interests are in employment relations and labour market studies, with recent publications focusing on the ageing workforce, skill shortages, minimum wages, and the gender pay gap.

Daniel Nicholson

Daniel Nicholson is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Workplace Leadership at the University of Melbourne. His research focuses on industrial relations and labour studies, with a particular interest in how technological changes are affecting workers and workplaces.

Andreas Pekarek

Andreas Pekarek is a Lecturer in the Department of Management and Marketing at the University of Melbourne. His research revolves around unions and collective bargaining, comparative industrial relations, critical human resource management and professional work. He has published in leading journals, such as British Journal of Industrial Relations, Industrial Relations Journal, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, and European Journal of Industrial Relations.