The gendered affordances of Craigslist “new-in-town girls wanted” ads

an article by Becca Schwartz and Gina Neff (Oxford Internet Institute, UK) published in New Media & Society Volume 21 Issue 11-12 (November 2019)

Abstract

Sex-for-rent schemes have emerged on online sites as rental options.

We analyzed 583 advertisements that were posted on Craigslist in London and Los Angeles and interviewed 34 women who were or had been in these arrangements.

This research yielded four key tensions:

1. navigating innuendo (mis)interpretation versus preserving arranged ambiguity,
2. the guise of amateurism and romance versus persistent specificity,
3. calculated sacrifice versus narrative of a better life, and
4. consent versus consensual non-consent.

Findings attest to the affordances online platforms offer by connecting geographically dispersed parties in a low risk, anonymous forum.

Furthermore, present research joins discourses on the commercialization of intimacy and forms of precarious, gendered labor while asserting Internet features are pivotal in facilitating these arrangements. We propose gendered affordances to conceptualize how individual aspirational labor efforts, combined with platform affordances, commodify intimacy for sale on the moral marketplace.

Full text (PDF 18pp)

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How a new breed of trade union is leading the fight for precarious workers

While traditional trade unions face a declining and ageing membership, smaller bodies are organising groups to directly confront the issues of the gig economy.

an article by Imogen West-Kinghts published in the New Statesman


Uber drivers march to the company’s offices in London as part of the IWGB protest October 2018

Millions of people in the UK are in work, but unable to afford the basic needs of life. Nearly two thirds of families living in poverty, as defined by the Social Metrics Commission, have at least one adult in work. Last year the TUC found that one in nine workers – nearly four million people – are in precarious work. The Resolution Foundation predicts that one in three millennials will still be renting in their old age. In previous decade, workers looked to trade unions for protection against low wages and insecurity, but membership of those unions has fallen precipitously. But the landscape of union organisation is changing to meet the challenges of the new economy, and new unions are arriving.

Forty years ago, trade unions were mammoths in the UK’s political landscape, representing more than twelve million of the country’s workers and wielding the power to bring down governments. But since 1979 membership has halved, hitting an all-time low in 2016, and the number of strike days taken has dropped from almost 30 million to around 170,000 in 2017.

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What Is the Gig Economy, and Why Is It So Controversial?

a post by Andrew Heinzman for How-To Geek


Artur Szczbylo/Shutterstock

The “gig economy” is a buzzword on the news and in everyday conversation. It refers to the rise in contracted work—or “gigs”—that aren’t traditional jobs. Ridesharing, food delivery, dog walker, and writers are part of this economy.

An Economy of Contracted or Independent Work

The “gig economy” is a phenomenon defined by a rise in independent or contracted work. According to a Marist poll, one-fifth of American jobs are contracted right now, and half of the US workforce could find themselves doing contract or freelance work over the next decade.

But what is an independent contractor? Think of construction, web design, freelance writing, or Uber driving. Workers in these fields aren’t legally defined as “employees.” Instead, they work under contracts or operate their own business as an independent worker.
[Depending on where you live. This post specifically refers to the USA but some of the comments will apply equally in the UK.)

To some people, the rise in contracted work comes as no surprise. We’ve spent the last decade recovering from a recession, so our workforce is bigger than it was a decade ago. And of course, there’s the internet. The internet’s made it super easy to hunt down contracted work (especially short-term work), and the rise of internet content, like YouTube videos (or the article you’re reading right now), has created a demand for writers, creatives, web designers, and programmers.

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Inventing a better future of work: the Working Futures science fiction anthology of better futures for workers and jobs

a post by Mike Masnick for the Boing Boing blog



[Worried about automation and high-tech unemployment, or gig economy labor apocalypses? Techdirt's Mike Masnick and the Copia Institute have pulled together an outstanding anthology of speculative fiction about better futures for work and workers, called Working Futures, [link to Amazon Kindle] which is just out. This kind of speculation-for-good is such a cool idea, and I'm delighted to give Mike a little space to discuss it. -Cory]

Over the past decade – as technology has advanced in two specific areas: the gig economy and artificial intelligence – there’s been a lot of discussion about the nature of work and the future of work. I’ve been somewhat frustrated by many of these discussions, as they always tend to fall broadly into two competing camps: people insisting that all the jobs will go away and we’re all doomed, or those who insist that “everything will work itself out, it always does“.

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‘I’m Not a Bloody Slave, I Get Paid and if I Don’t Get Paid Then Nothing Happens’: Sarah’s Experience of Being a Student Sex Worker

an article by Jessica Simpson (City, University of London, UK) and Sarah Smith (Student, Sex worker, UK) published in Work, Employment and Society Volume 33 Issue 4 (August 2019)

Abstract

Sex work remains a contentious area of debate.

Whether or not sex work is considered to be a form of labour is in itself contested.

As discussion is often about rather than with sex workers, this article brings Sarah’s experiences of being both a student and a sex worker, in two different areas of the UK, to centre stage.

This candid account highlights the precarious and competitive nature of being self-employed within the current neoliberal climate, as well as the similarities sex work shares with other ‘mainstream’ forms of labour particularly within the ‘gig economy’. Existing research has focused on how/why students enter the sex industry leaving a gap in the literature regarding what happens after university in this context.

It appears from Sarah’s account that leaving sex work behind may not be as straightforward as she had originally anticipated, for reasons other than just making money.

Full text (PDF 10pp)

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Acas report reveals that half of UK workers think that gig working will remain the same over the year ahead

an ACAS news report

Acas report reveals that half of UK workers think that gig working will remain the same over the year ahead
A new report from workplace experts, Acas, has revealed that nearly half of workers (49%) believe that the use of gig workers will stay about the same in the year ahead.

The new Acas study looks at policy thinking on the quality of work and productivity. It includes a YouGov poll that asked workers about the key issues for their workplaces and working lives over 2019.

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Monopsony in online labour markets

a column by Arindrajit Dube, Jeff Jacobs, Suresh Naidu and Siddharth Suri for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal

Monopsony refers to the market power that employers wield in labour markets. This column explores monopsony power in online labour markets, using observational and experimental data from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform.

Both datasets suggest an employer labour supply elasticity of close to 0.1, suggesting that a 10% reduction in wages would only see a 1% drop in willing labour. This points to substantial employer market power in a supposedly frictionless setting.

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We Asked Some Experts About the Future of Workers’ Rights in the UK

a post by Jam Collins for the Rights Info blog (Human Rights News, Views & Info)



For most of us, working is a fact of life. However, just like every other part of our lives, it comes with a specific set of protections and rights to which we’re all entitled.

From things like maximum working hours and the national minimum wage, to health and safety, mass surveillance or pensions, there are a huge number of issues which touch on our rights at work.

However, employment has changed a lot during the past few years. In the last 12 months alone we’ve started to see the true extent of the gender pay gap, as companies with more than 250 employees are forced to reveal data. We’ve seen the ongoing saga surrounding the gig economy, strikes from outsourced workers and thousands of calls to the new modern slavery hotline.

So, what is the future of work for 2018 and beyond? It’s a big question, so we spoke to some people most likely to give us some big answers…

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Safeguarding public interests in the platform economy

a column by Koen Frenken, Arnoud van Waes, Magda Smink and Rinie van Est for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal

The success of Airbnb and Uber has heralded the rise of online platforms and marketplaces for goods and services. This column identifies public interests that are common to most sharing and gig platforms, and presents a policy framework based on four basic policy options:

• enforce existing regulations, 
• enact new regulations, 
• deregulate, or 
• tolerate.

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I found this fascinating. Mainly, I think, because I am interested in who pays the income tax / national insurance or whatever pertains in whichever country.

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Governance In The Labour Supply Chain

an article by Michael Hepburn via ICSA published on the Mondaq blog

Workers in the ‘gig’ economy present new employment law obligations for organisations

A gig economy is an environment in which temporary positions are common and organisations contract with independent workers for short-term engagements. The trend towards a gig economy is well under way.

In the summer, the ongoing Uber case was the first of, perhaps, many gig economy examples of workers taking a services company to employment tribunal over employment rights.

With so many new technology services in the delivery, transport and other sectors using new business models it is perhaps no surprise that UK employment law for the individuals involved is uncertain.

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