HRMWE Research Community Seminar

Title: Disrupting reputation: navigating platform precarity in the remote gig economy

27 Apr 2022, 14:00-16:00
Zoom

Guest Speaker: Dr Alex Wood (University of Bristol and Oxford Internet Institute)

Abstract
Digitalisation and the use of algorithms have raised concerns regarding the future of work; the gig economy being identified by some as particularly concerning. In this talk, I draw on 70 interviews in addition to participant observations to highlight the role of gig economy platforms in producing a novel form of reputational insecurity. This insecurity is generated by platform disruption to the traditional operation of industry reputation in freelance markets. I highlight three areas of transformation (recognition, power relations, and transparency) in which platforms disrupt the social regulation of reputation and thus algorithmically amplify uncertainty. I also detail how workers individually and collectively attempt to re-embed reputation within interpersonal relations to reduce this novel insecurity.

Please register your attendance using the following link: https://forms.ncl.ac.uk/view.php?id=13810890.