Work futures: globalization, planetary markets, and uneven developments in the gig economy

ABSTRACT

The world of work is changing rapidly in myriad ways. The processes of digitization are enabling workers from different parts of the world to compete in a global market over the Internet without moving to different locations. Many employers are opting for hybrid working solutions in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, some commentators have suggested the end of globalization, while others are hoping that a fairer society will emerge. This paper departs from such rigid assessments of the future of work and instead attempts to understand the multi-dimensional transformations in the world of work through the lens of the global gig economy. It argues that the gig economy is the latest manifestation of capitalism’s drive to accumulate which in turn produces uneven geographical developments. It concludes by outlining some strategies to build better work futures in a globalized world.

KEYWORDS:

• Future of work
• gig economy
• platforms
• planetary labour markets
• uneven geographical development

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The concept of fixes in capitalism has two meanings. One is a literal meaning of fixing capital in physical forms and the second is metaphorical as in a solution to crises or contradictions in capitalism (see Harvey, 2001).

2 Here we are mindful of the variegated nature of capitalist developments around the world (Peck & Theodore, 2007).

3 Lack of infrastructure on part of the employers means workers bear the costs and risks of infrastructure such as smartphone, laptop, internet.

4 The Online Labour Index (OLI) measures the supply and demand of online platform labor across countries and occupations by tracking the number of projects and tasks across platforms in real times. Conclusions made from these data have a limited scope due to the inclusion of only four English-language digital platforms and potential errors in measurement of number of completed projects (Kässi & Lehdonvirta, 2018).

5 The data was scraped by authors from Upwork.com manually using their filter menu on 4th April 2022.

6 An important caveat here that the bulk of the remote gig economy is dominated by the English-language as shown by the OLO. There are significant non-English platforms, including Russian, French, Spanish, and Chinese ones. However, data on these platforms are rarely publicly available.

7 Self-organisation among ride-hailing and delivery workers is well acknowledged and studied, including in this journal. See Webster et al. (2021).

8 Some of the Silicon Valley tech giants have a globally-distributed workforce that train their computers for advanced artificial intelligence-based tools such as driverless cars and search engines (e.g., Anwar & Graham, 2020b; Tubaro et al., 2020).

9 Though some governments have attempted to regulate the remote gig economy, for example, Kenya via its Digital Tax initiative (Itimu, 2019).

10 Much of the efforts to regulate work on various platforms are centred around the geographically-tethered work where workers interact with people in their locality hence it is easier for their stories to generate public consciousness (e.g. Eurofound, 2019).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mohammad Amir Anwar

Mohammad Amir Anwar is a Lecturer in African Studies and International Development at the University of Edinburgh, a Senior Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg, and a Senior Research Fellow (Honorary) at the British Insitute of Eastern Africa.

Susann Schäfer

Susann Schäfer is a research associate and lecturer in economic geography at the Friedrich-Schiller-University in Jena. Her research aims to analyse geographies of work and entrepreneurship in times of digitalization and migration.

Slobodan Golušin

Slobodan Golusin is a PhD candidate in sociology at the Central European University in Vienna and a research associate at the Public Policy Research Center.