Uma Rani

This chapter critically assesses the inadequacy of traditional job quality frameworks in evaluating platform work and calls for new, platform-specific indicators. Using ILO survey data from 18,000 platform workers across various sectors and countries, the analysis reveals the limitations of focusing solely on traditional metrics. The chapter proposes a more nuanced approach that incorporates factors specific to working in this sector. Key findings show that, while platform work can be a primary income source, especially in developing countries, it is often marked by low, fluctuating pay and carries significant worker-borne costs. Meanwhile, job security is undermined by algorithmic control and the constant threat of deactivation; while the flexibility offered is often illusory, with long hours and high stress, leading to the erosion of work-life boundaries. This adapted framework provides a more accurate understanding, crucial for developing policies to ensure decent terms and conditions for those engaged in platform work.

This article provides an overview of the multifaceted impact of digital technologies on the future of work, particularly in the Global South. It highlights the potential for technological advancements to enhance productivity and create new opportunities, as well as the concerns about job displacement, rising inequality, and the proliferation of precarious work through digital labour platforms. The analysis explores the convergence of technological advancements with broader economic forces, the rise of algorithmic management and its implications for worker well-being, and the specific challenges faced by developing economies in adapting to rapid technological change. By drawing on historical parallels and examining diverse case studies, the overview advocates for a human-centred approach to technological transformation, emphasising the importance of social dialogue, worker empowerment, and equitable distribution of the benefits of progress. It concludes that a nuanced understanding of technology's interaction with existing social and economic structures is crucial for shaping a just and sustainable future of work.

This paper challenges the prevailing perception of the boundless nature of Online Labour Markets (OLMs), where platforms connect service providers, such as online freelancers or workers, with clients. The focus is specifically on the pricing strategies employed by online freelancers on Upwork, a prominent international freelance platform. This article contributes empirically and theoretically to debates on the purported boundlessness of OLMs. It illustrates how online freelancers, when confronted with the rules and practices of platform algorithms, develop distinct strategies to navigate the challenges and access work across regional boundaries. Importantly, our findings reveal that despite adopting similar pricing strategies there are earnings disparities among freelancers across regional boundaries. Consequently, unpaid labour time incurred by workers in developing countries while providing services through the platform becomes a discernible cost borne by freelancers in their pursuit of accessing more lucrative opportunities.

This special issue explores how power relations are shaping the digital economy. Rather than simply identifying areas needing regulation, we aim to understand the digital economy’s underlying dynamics and potential pathways towards transformation. A political economy analysis, focused on the dialectical interaction between actors with contradictory interests, can reveal the winners and losers in the digital economy and expose the underlying power structures that shape its development. The papers in this Special Issue explore how these power dynamics manifest across various spheres. The papers in the issue argue that the digital economy, far from being a neutral space, reinforces existing power imbalances, particularly between capital and labor, requiring a critical examination of its financial flows, regulatory frameworks, and distributional outcomes to understand its transformative potential. Ultimately, the special issue aims to inform strategies for building resistance that links struggles from below and regulation from above.

Digital labour platforms have gained prominence within the development agenda in recent years, as they have the potential to create income and employment opportunities. These platforms are also argued to formalize workers as they register them on platforms and facilitate the financial transactions. This chapter makes an attempt to understand what digital labour platforms mean for development and whether they contribute to development outcomes and the achievement of SDGs in developing countries. It focuses on whether the platforms help in realizing SDG 8 on decent working conditions for workers and SDG 5 achieving gender equality and empowering women using global and country level surveys of workers on platforms. It highlights some of the challenges in realizing these goals and suggests some pathways to ensure that all work on platforms is decent.

This paper is concerned with the expansion or penetration of digital economic activity in developing country contexts, and what this may mean for economic or structural transformations for countries in the Global South. We ask what possibilities new jobs and forms of work in the digital economy—and in particular platform work—hold for the productive transformation of developing economies in ways that contribute to achieving the goals of human, inclusive, and sustainable development. What are the impacts on work and workers in this process? The question of whether a ‘digital transformation’ can spur development, and if so how, and to whose benefit, depends in large part on the nature of employment created and on whether labour can move to higher productivity sectors, raising incomes while strengthening state capacity to finance public goods and services, including social protection.

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) systems have gained popularity and are expected to enhance efficiency and productivity. However, there is a common misconception that these systems are fully automated and will replace human labor. Emerging research indicates that AI-enabled business models rely heavily on human workers for training, development, monitoring and service of the AI. Human-in-the-loop processes remain fundamental to the operation of AI systems, which increasingly utilize a global pool of workers through digital labor platforms to perform multiple tasks. This chapter highlights the precarious working conditions of workers who perform tasks to support and develop AI systems, based on surveys conducted on microtask platforms. It also highlights the implications of the AI-enabled business models on transforming the nature of employment and job quality, and the risk of exacerbating inequalities and underlines the importance of promoting decent work for all.