This paper focuses on the processes related to the Airbnb platform in Tallinn, both on the institutional level and from the perspective of individual hosts. The qualitative research was based on document analysis, expert interviews and in-depth interviews with individual private hosts.
By Liis Ojamäe, Kristjan Peik, Kairit Kall, Triin Roosalu, Marge Unt
The first part of the report is dedicated to the institutional setting that influences the ridehailing/taxi industry. The second part of the report is devoted to the perspectives of platform workers, more precisely that of platform taxi drivers.
By Kairit Kall, Triin Roosalu, Marge Unt, Liis Ojamäe
Este artículo analiza el origen, las fortalezas y los principales retos que caracterizan las plataformas vinculadas al cooperativismo de plataforma y/o a los comunes digitales. Para ello, se ha llevado a cabo un análisis empírico de veintidós plataformas que operan en cuatro sectores claves en la emergencia de la economía de plataforma: el servicio de taxi, el alojamiento de corta estancia, la distribución de alimentos y los servicios domésticos y de cuidado a domicilio.
By Mayo Fuster Morell, Ricard Espelt, Melissa Renau Cano
In this paper, we ask why the introduction of a ‘free login’ system generated even more precarious forms of work, by comparing workforce management systems both before and during the COVID-19 period. We argue that the reason it becomes problematic is rooted in Deliveroo’s business model, which is characterised by hiring on-demand, using a piece-rate payment and exercising hard workforce control through algorithmic management.
By Melissa Renau Cano, Ricard Espelt and Mayo Fuster Morell
Se analiza el desarrollo de las relaciones industriales dirigidas a mejorar las condiciones de trabajo y de vida en los servicios de entrega de alimentos; más precisamente, considerando la ciudad de Bolonia como un caso de estudio interesante.
By by Maurilio Pirone (Università di Bologna)
The essay starts with a discussion of the legal and political logic of recognition with respect to labor and labor relations. Such a logic is historically and geographically contextualized in the framework of the development of industrial capitalism and in particular of mass industrial production, i.e., Fordism. The notion of a «standard labor relation» associated to this development is then critically analyzed. It is from this angle that the author discusses the emergence of digital, and more specifically platform labor, which radically challenges any idea of a standard labor relation.
By Sandro Mezzadra (Università di Bologna)
Platforms are transforming society, economy, and politics and becoming essential infrastructures of our lives. In this way, digital spaces overlap with other spatialities, urban areas in particular. This process is not peaceful but generates bottlenecks, resistances, and oppositions. In this article, we propose to combine platform studies with infrastructure studies to frame the capacity of such enterprises to build new urban postindustrial environments.
Carlotta Benvegnù; Niccolò Cuppini; Mattia Frapporti; Floriano Milesi; Maurilio Pirone; (Into the Black Box)
Through the case analysis of Uber in Lisbon, we were able to identify a situation where several ambiguities emerged, some of which are associated with the Portuguese singularity of intermediary platform capitalism.
By Giovanni Allegretti (Centre for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra), Sheila Holz (Centre for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra) and Nuno Rodrigues (Instituto de Geografia e Ordenamento do Território (IGOT) at the University of Lisbon)
Il mondo del lavoro e le sue trasformazioni costituiscono un importante filone di studio del Centro competenze lavoro, welfare e società (CLWS) del Dipartimento economia aziendale, sanità e sociale (DEASS) della SUPSI.
A cura di Niccolò Cuppini (Funzione Centro competenze lavoro, welfare e società, ricercatore) e Maël Dif-Pradalier (université professionnelle de la Suisse italienne)
With this report, PLUS consortium wants to contribute to a large debate on the role of platform economy and on how to deal with labour transformations after Covid-19 outbreak.
By Federico Chicchi, Mattia Frapporti, Marco Marrone and Maurilio Pirone (Università di Bologna)
En el presente texto se hace una revisión de la literatura en torno a dichas plataformas que impulsan el capitalismo digital, prestando especial atención a la aparición de los nuevos interfaces conversacionales. Asimismo, se presta especial atención al proyecto CALO, financiado por la DARPA, y que constituye el germen de muchas de estas innovaciones.
By Raúl Tabarés Gutiérrez, TECNALIA Ventures, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA)
This paper aims at opening a research space to deepen and problematize one of the main emerging concepts in urban studies, that of “planetary urbanization”. In recent years, this perspective has progressively established itself as an important analytical lens for understanding and interpreting the mobile, expansive and interconnected space-process that we can call urbanisation. (in Italian)
By Niccolò Cuppini (Funzione Centro competenze lavoro, welfare e società, ricercatore) e Mattia Frapporti (Università di Bologna)
It will consider the impact of digital technologies on urban spaces. On one side, this means how high tech giants and platform firms are establishing in urban spaces as infrastructures for data accumulation and services’ development, influencing not only urban planning but also economic and social fabric. On the other side, several urban actors move towards entrepreneurialism often using platforms and data.
By Valentin Niebler (Leuphana University of Lüneburg), Moritz Altenried (Leuphana University of Lüneburg) and Maurilio Pirone (Università di Bologna)
The contribution analyzes how digital platforms change urban work and life as well as the spatiality and material architecture of the city. This affects not only working conditions, but also everyday forms and practices of mobility, consumption or reproduction. (in German)
By Moritz Altenried (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Stefania Animento (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) and Manuela Bojadžijev (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin).
The platform economy is growing exponentially while creating expectations for its potential to contribute to a sustainable development. However, research aimed at showing the potential contribution of each platform’s business model to sustainable development is needed.
By Mayo Fuster Morell (Harvard University), Ricard Espelt (Open University of Catalonia) and Melissa Renau (Open University of Catalonia)
The rapid growth of the debate around the crucial transformations that our economy is having through the development and public diffusion of digital technologies seems to have a consequence: the confusing multiplications of words and concepts regarding labour and the following difficulty in formulating univocal definitions.
By Federico Chicchi (Università di Bologna), Mattia Frapporti (Università di Bologna), Marco Marrone (Università di Bologna) and Maurilio Pirone (Università di Bologna)
The rise of the platform economy has had enormous influence on the world of work in the recent decade. Despite its often relatively small size in the overall labour market, its paradigms have served as inspiration or laboratories of experimentation for the transformation of workplaces and management in various industries. It is therefore important to describe and contextualize the logics of platform labour, and the ways workers deal with these circumstances.
By Valentin Niebler (Leuphana University of Lüneburg), Moritz Altenried (Leuphana University of Lüneburg) and Jude Macannuco(Leuphana University of Lüneburg)
It represents one of the first results of a collective knowledge production of two partners (Leuphana University of LüneburgUniversità di Bologna) in a European-wide research project on Platform Labour in Urban Spaces. . The research aims not only to empirically examine the rise of the “gig economy” in European cities, which, overall, has been little studied and even less in comparison between European cities, but moreover to suggest as to how we can conceptualize this rise and the changing living and labour conditions in urban space within the context of an emerging platform urbanism.
By Manuela Bojadžijev (Leuphana University of Lüneburg), Sandro Mezzadra (Università di Bologna)
