A global comparison of patterns and outcomes of platform worker protest

Projektziel

This project aims to understand what factors enable protest by platform workers to successfully exert power. By conducting an set of qualitative case studies from a wide range of industries and countries, we will interrogate how different organizational strategies, different kinds of actor and alliances, and different contextual factors, influence the outcomes of protest by platform workers.

Projektbeschreibung

Kontext

Understanding what contributes to the outcome of workers’ struggles in the platform is essential in order to shape employment relations in this new sector. While there is now a wealth of qualitative scholarship on protest by platform workers, there has for some time been a pressing need to set these in a wider, quantitative and global perspective. The Leeds Index, which began in 2019, is a unique attempt to address this need. Tracking thousands of instances of platform worker protest based on news reporting, it enables us to see how the motivations for protest, the kinds of actors involved, and the methods of protest, vary across sector and country. Organising strategies would benefit from a thorough comparison of factors that lead to desired outcome by workers.

Fragestellung

The central questions are: Do particular forms of organisation appear to be more successful in securing protest gains for platform workers, and if so which ones? Do particular methods appear more successful, and if so which ones? To what extent do predictors of effective protest vary according to national and industrial context? Finally, we ask a broader theoretical question about how “success” in platform worker protest should be understood. Is it related to bargaining outcomes, organisational progress, or any other indicators?

Untersuchungsmethoden

The project is a mixed methods one. Quantitatively, it integrates the Leeds Index with other quantitative datasets relevant to institutional and political conditions in different countries. Qualitatively, it analyses the outcomes of platform worker protest and what influences the outcomes. It does so by 30 case studies of platform labour disputes from across the world as well as collaborating with the International Labour Organisation classifying all worker disputes in the platform economy towards outcomes.