Migrant Labour in the Gig Economy - (Dynamics of Virtual Work) by Francesco Della Puppa & Dipsita Dhar & Nicola Montagna (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

This book explores the gig economy and the role of migrant workers, which has been widely documented, but under-researched. In the last forty years work and employment in the advanced economies has undergone profound transformations and, more recently, a key role has been played by the development of platform capitalism and the gig economy as a way of organising work and providing services.

There are still huge gaps in research on how platform-mediated gig work impacts the structural vulnerability of migrant workers and how this can be addressed by welfare policies. The aim of this book is to address some of these issues. It includes empirical and theoretical contributions from across the globe on topics such as migrant workers and digitalised work, artificial Intelligence and work, digitalisation and work-related policy, digital surveillance, labour struggles in the digitalised service sector, unionism and self-organisation in the gig economy. It will be of great interest to scholars and students of work and employment, the future of work, social movements, migration and labour studies.

From the Back Cover

"This book examines empirical realities in different areas of the world, suggesting that while each country exhibits specific singularities and particularities, a broader, paradoxical process of homogenization is underway, particularly affecting migrant workers: the intensification of labor exploitation and precarization. It also suggests that we are witnessing the rise of new struggles and forms of resistance. This reveals that the evolving morphology of labor is giving rise to a new morphology of social struggles."

-- Ricardo Antunes, State University of Campinas, Brazil.

This book explores the gig economy and the role of migrant workers, which has been widely documented, but under-researched. In the last forty years, work and employment, in the advanced economies, has undergone profound transformations and, more recently, a key role has been played by the development of platform capitalism and the gig economy as a way of organising work and providing services.

There are still huge gaps in research on how platform-mediated gig work impacts the structural vulnerability of migrant workers. The aim of this book is to address some of these issues. It includes empirical and theoretical contributions from across the globe on topics such as migrant workers and digitalised work, Artificial Intelligence and labour, digitalisation and work-related policy, digital surveillance, labour struggles in the digitalised service sector, unionism and self-organisation in the gig economy. It will be of great interest to scholars and students of work and employment, social movements, migration and labour studies.

Francesco Della Puppa is Associate Professor in Sociology at Ca' Foscari University, Italy. Dipsita Dhar is social activist and PhD candidate at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.

Nicola Montagna is Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Salerno, Italy.

About the Author

Francesco Della Puppa is Associate Professor in Sociology at the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage at Ca' Foscari University, Italy. He carries out teaching and research activities relating to international migration, migrant families and family reunification, transformations of masculinity in migration, migrant labour and racial discrimination, refugees and asylum seekers, digital labour. He has published widely in books and journals.

Dipsita Dhar is an activist and early career research scholar, who works on Migration, Unionisation and Digital Labour. She recently has co-edited a book titled Education or Exclusion (2022) discussing the adverse effect of the New Education Policy on the young students of India. Her work on digital labour platform has been published in journals like Gender and Development and others. Apart from the academic journals she often writes for Jacobin and Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung on various issues.

Nicola Montagna (PhD) is Associate Professor of Criminology and Sociology at the University of Salerno. Prior to this, he taught and conducted research at Middlesex University London for nearly twenty years. He has participated in several international research projects funded by the European Union (EU), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). His research focuses on international migration and the politics of migration and borders, social movements, urban protest, populism. He has published widely in leading academic journals, including Sociology and the International Migration Review, as well as in numerous edited volumes.