Skip to main content

Gig Economy and Sustainable Development

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Decent Work and Economic Growth

Synonyms

Cloudwork; Geographically tethered platform work; Location-based platform work; Platform economy; Work-on-demand via app

Definitions

In the context of this entry, the gig economy refers to any form of work which happens through, via, on, or mediated by a digital platform. This form of work is often contingent and casual, with workers paid piece-rate, on a per-task basis (De Stefano 2016; Woodcock and Graham 2019). The relationship with the platform is often characterized by independent contracting, with workers only hired to perform individual tasks or “gigs” (Aloisi 2016; Prassl 2018). Work in the gig economy is usually classified into two categories depending on whether the work is performed off-line or online. In the former, work is referred to as “geographically tethered work” (Woodcock and Graham 2019) or “work-on-demand via app” (De Stefano 2016). This first type of work requires the worker to be in a specific location in order to perform the assigned task. This...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Alberti G, Bessa I, Hardy K, Trappmann V, Umney C (2018) In, against and beyond precarity: work in insecure times. Work Employ Soc 32(3):447–457

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aloisi A (2016) Commoditized workers: case study research on labor law issues arising from a set of on-demand/gig economy platforms. Comp Labour Law Policy J 37:653–690

    Google Scholar 

  • Anwar MA, Graham M (2019) Does economic upgrading lead to social upgrading in contact centers? Evidence from South Africa. Afr Geogr Rev 38(3):209–226

    Google Scholar 

  • Anwar MA, Graham M (2020) Between a rock and a hard place: freedom, flexibility, precarity and vulnerability in the gig economy in Africa. Compet Chang 25(2):237–258

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berg J, Furrer M, Harmon E, Rani U, Silberman S (2018) Digital labour platforms and the future of work: towards decent work in the online world. ILO report. https://www.ilo.org/global/publications/books/WCMS_645337/lang%2D%2Den/index.htm. Accessed 27 July 2020

  • Bughin J, Manyika J, Woetzel J (2016) Independent work, choice, necessity and the gig economy. McKinsey Global Institute, San Francisco

    Google Scholar 

  • Cant C (2019) Riding for Deliveroo: resistance in the new economy. Wiley, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Castel R (2002) From manual workers to wage laborers: transformation of the social question. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen M, Carré F (2020) The informal economy revisited: examining the past, envisioning the future. Taylor & Francis, Oxford/New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Christie N, Ward H (2018) The emerging issues for management of occupational road risk in a changing economy: a survey of gig economy drivers, riders and their managers. UCL Centre for Transport Studies, London

    Google Scholar 

  • De Stefano V (2016) The rise of the just-in-time workforce: on-demand work, crowdwork, and labor protection in the gig-economy. Comp Labour Law Policy J 37:471–503

    Google Scholar 

  • Fairwork (2020) The gig economy and Covid-19: Fairwork report on platform policies. Oxford, UK

    Google Scholar 

  • Fairwork (n.d.) Frequently asked questions. Fairwork project. https://fair.work/contact/frequently-asked-questions/. Accessed 27 July 2020

  • Fredman S (2006) Precarious norms for precarious workers. In: Fudge J, Owens R (eds) Precarious work, women and the new economy. Oxford legal studies research paper no. 32/2006. Hart, pp 177–200. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=912630

  • Fredman S, Du Toit D (2019) One small step towards decent work: Uber v Aslam in the Court of Appeal. Ind Law J 48(2):260–277

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gartner (2020) Future of work trends post Covid-19. Gartner, Stamford

    Google Scholar 

  • Graham M, Anwar M (2019) The global gig economy: towards a planetary labour market? First Monday 24(4). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v24i4.9913

  • Harvey D (2007) A brief history of neoliberalism. Oxford University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Heeks R, Eskelund K, Gomez-Morantes J-E, Malik F, Nicholson B (2020) Digital labour platforms in the global south: filling or creating institutional voids?. GDI digital development working paper no. 86. University of Manchester

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunt A, Machingura F (2016) A good gig? The rise of on-demand domestic work. Development progress working paper, 7

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunt E, Samman E (2019) Gender and the gig economy: critical steps for evidence-based policy. ODI working paper, 546

    Google Scholar 

  • ILO (2015) Decent work. International Labour Organisation. https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/decent-work/lang%2D%2Den/index.htm. Accessed 23 July 2020

  • ITU (2008) ITU corporate annual report 2008. https://www.itu.int/osg/csd/stratplan/AR2008_web.pdf

  • Johnston H, Land-Kazlauskas C (2018) Organizing on-demand: representation, voice, and collective bargaining in the gig economy. Conditions of work and employment series no. 94. International Labour Organisation, Geneva

    Google Scholar 

  • Kalleberg AL (2009) Precarious work, insecure workers: employment relations in transition. Am Sociol Rev 74(1):1–22

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaplanis I (2007) The geography of employment polarisation in Britain. Institute for Public Policy Research, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Langley P, Leyshon A (2017) Platform capitalism: the intermediation and capitalisation of digital economic circulation. Finance Soc 3(1):11–31

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacDonald R, Giazitzoglu A (2019) Youth, enterprise and precarity: or, what is, and what is wrong with, the ‘gig economy’? J Sociol 55(4):724–740

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ojanperä S, O’Clery N, Graham M (2018) Data science, artificial intelligence and the futures of work. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1475162

  • Prassl J (2018) Humans as a service: the promise and perils of work in the gig economy. Oxford University Press

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ravenelle A (2019) Hustle and gig: struggling and surviving in the sharing economy. University of California Press, Oakland

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Schwellnus C, Geva A, Pak M, Veiel R (2019) Gig economy platforms: boon or bane? OECD, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Srnicek N (2017) The challenges of platform capitalism: understanding the logic of a new business model. Juncture 23:254–257

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tassinari A, Maccarrone V (2020) Riders on the storm: workplace solidarity among gig economy couriers in Italy and the UK. Work Employ Soc 34(1):35–54

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor FW (1967) The principles of scientific management. Norton, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson P, Ackroyd S (1995) All quiet on the workplace front? A critique of recent trends in British industrial sociology. Sociology 29:615–633

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ticona J, Mateescu A (2018) Trusted strangers: carework platforms’ cultural entrepreneurship in the on-demand economy. New Media Soc 20(11):4384–4404

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Doorn N (2017) Platform labor: on the gendered and racialized exploitation of low-income service work in the ‘on-demand’ economy. Inf Commun Soc 20(6):898–914

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wood A, Lehdonvirta V (2019) Platform labour and structured antagonism: understanding the origins of protest in the gig economy (March 5, 2019). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3357804

  • Woodcock J, Graham M (2019) The gig economy: a critical introduction. Polity, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Yerby E, Page-Tickell R (2020) Where next for the gig economy and precarious work post COVID-19? LSE, 1st May

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alessio Bertolini .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Section Editor information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Bertolini, A., Howson, K., Katta, S., Ustek-Spilda, F., Graham, M. (2021). Gig Economy and Sustainable Development. In: Leal Filho, W., Azul, A.M., Brandli, L., Lange Salvia, A., Wall, T. (eds) Decent Work and Economic Growth. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71058-7_105-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71058-7_105-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-71058-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-71058-7

  • eBook Packages: Living Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics