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Online, on call: the spread of digitally organised just‐in‐time working and its implications for standard employment models
Author(s) -
Huws Ursula,
Spencer Neil H.,
Syrdal Dag S.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
new technology, work and employment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.889
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1468-005X
pISSN - 0268-1072
DOI - 10.1111/ntwe.12111
Subject(s) - workforce , normative , work (physics) , diversity (politics) , telecommuting , temporary work , sociology , workforce diversity , information and communications technology , labour economics , public relations , political science , economics , economic growth , engineering , mechanical engineering , anthropology , law
This article questions whether the dominant policy discourse, in which a normative model of standard employment is counterposed to ‘non‐standard’ or ‘atypical’ employment, enables us to capture the diversity of fluid labour markets in which work is dynamically reshaped in an interaction between different kinds of employment status and work organisation. Drawing on surveys in the UK , Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands that investigate work managed via online platforms (‘crowdwork’) and associated practices, it demonstrates that crowdwork represents part of a continuum. Not only do most crowd workers combine work for online platforms with other forms of work or income generation, but also many of the ICT ‐related practices associated with crowdwork are widespread across the rest of the labour market where a growing number of workers are ‘logged’. Future research should not just focus on crowdworkers as a special case but on new patterns of work organisation in the regular workforce.