Abstract
AbstractThis article investigates why gig economy workers who see themselves as self-employed freelancers also engage in collective action traditionally associated with regular employment. Using ethnographic evidence on the remote gig economy in North America, the UK and the Philippines, we argue that labour platforms increase the agency of workers to contract with clients and thus reduce the risk of false self-employment in terms of the worker–client relationship. However, in doing so, platforms create a new source of subordination to the platform itself. We term this phenomenon ‘subordinated agency’, and demonstrate that it entails a ‘structured antagonism’ with platforms that manifests in three areas: fees, competition and worker voice mechanisms. Subordinated agency creates worker desire for representation, greater voice and even unionization towards the platform, while preserving entrepreneurial attitudes towards clients.
Highlights
Over the past decade, a new type of self-employment known as the gig economy has emerged and grown dramatically around the world (Kassi and Lehdonvirta, 2018; Pesole et al, 2018)
The aim of this study was to consider whether conflict in the remote gig economy might be generated and shaped by the specific manner in which economic exchange is enabled by platforms
Our review of previous literature suggested that platforms in the remote gig economy differ from conventional employers and temporary work agencies in terms of the level of ongoing subordination
Summary
A new type of self-employment known as the gig economy has emerged and grown dramatically around the world (Kassi and Lehdonvirta, 2018; Pesole et al, 2018). We draw on extensive fieldwork on macro-remote gig work to show how platforms’ privileged position within their triadic interactions with workers and clients leads to a dual process in which workers experience both enhanced agency in relation to clients and at the same time increased subordination to platform authority. This contradictory process, which we term ‘subordinated agency’, gives rise to antagonism that fuels conflict and, surprisingly, support for unions—while at the same time reinforcing freelancer and entrepreneurial subjectivities. The article concludes by considering the applicability of subordinated agency to the local gig economy and the platform economy more broadly
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