Category: 未分類
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Algorithmic Game of Fortune and The Making of Digital Entrepreneurs: Micro-Influencing as Platform Labour in China
Yingqin Zheng (Royal Holloway, University of London) Abstract This paper investigates how grassroot micro-influencers (MIs) in China are enrolled on digital platforms as micro-entrepreneurs through an algorithmic ‘Game of Fortune’. Our findings from an ethnographic fieldwork show how discourses of self-making entrepreneurs and the opaque, dynamic platform algorithms serve to lock participants into a form…
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State-led labour relations in the platform employment: collective actions, social advocacy, and responses of the state in the platform economy in China
Abstract Studies on the Chinese platform economy illustrate the interaction between platforms and workers, especially the algorithm management and labour process practices in the industry. However, the role of the state is inadequately discussed although state-labour relations is a major scholarly interest in studies on Chinese industrial relations. Drawing on fieldwork starting from 2019 to…
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Labour governance in China’s platform economy: A five-level policy analysis
Abstract While the platform economy in China has received increasing scholarly attention, most studies place the experience of platform work in the context of algorithmic control by the platforms, ignoring the political context in which digital labour is situated. This article is the first to provide a systemic analysis of the labour regulatory framework that…
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Working conditions of workers in ride-hailing platform: the case of Vietnam
1Dang Thai Binh 2Vu Minh Tien 1Do Ta Khanh 1Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS) 2Institute of Workers and Trade Union (IWTU) Abstract: Since appearing in Vietnam, ride-hailing platforms have brought many benefits in attracting many unskilled and qualified workers and creating better income for workers. Although drivers have jobs in ride-hailing platforms with…
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Voice and Representation of Platform Workers: The Case of Ride-hailing Drivers in Vietnam
Do Quynh Chi Abstract:The ride-hailing and delivery platforms emerged in Vietnam only in 2014 but have quickly attracted nearly one million drivers. While the government has remained silent on the employment status of the platform drivers, the ride-hailing and delivery workers have been denied the right to organising and collective bargaining. However, similar to ride-hailing…
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Labour politics of platform employment in the “new era” in China: aggressive platforms and angry workers in a strong party-state
Jing Wang Abstract:The platform economy absorbs tens of millions of workers across the world and the pattern of platform employment raises new questions to existing labour relations, legislation system, and institutional establishment in countries all over the world. One side of the labour politics is platforms which apply casual employment in the labour relations and…
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Independent Contractors, Migrant Households, and Cost Competitiveness in e-Commerce Logistics Chains in China
Jenny Chan Abstract:Subcontracting, which companies use to avoid costly obligations otherwise required of direct, longer-term employment, is core to parcel delivery services in China. Alibaba, not unlike Amazon, has expanded its delivery network by investing in contingent subcontracted workers. The veil of workers’ independence, justified by their ownership of the vehicles they use to deliver,…
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Gig Labor Struggles during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The case of the Philippines
Yvan Yonaha Abstract:How does the pandemic impact on labor relations in the developing world? This paper contributes to our understanding of the entanglements of COVID-19 and worker movements by exploring how FoodPanda drivers struggled for better working conditions within the context of the Philippines. As in other Southeast Asian countries, labor movements in the Philippines…
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Gender, Job Quality, and the Platform-based Food-delivery Sector in Taiwan
Bo-Yi Lee Abstract:Due to the rapidly rising number of workers earning a living from digital labour platforms, job quality has been one of the critical issues in such working contexts, including the platform-based food-delivery sector. Overall, platform-based fooddelivery workers are poorly compensated (Goods et al., 2019; Heeks et al., 2021). Social protection, including health insurance,…
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Viral(ised) (In)visibilities: Precarities of Ethnic minority food delivery workers in Hong Kong
Lisa YM Leung Abstract:The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has provided job opportunities especially for South Asian workers in Hong Kong. It has also put these racial minority workers in additional layers of precarities, which also aggravated and unravelled the layers of embedded racism in Hong Kong. This paper examines the inter-sectional politics of race…
Asian Platform Labour Conference 2022 