Platform Labour and the Mobile Underclass: Barriers to Participation in the United States and India

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Datum
2019
Herausgeber:innen
Autor:innen
Newlands, Gemma
Lutz, Christoph
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ISSN der Zeitschrift
Bandtitel
Verlag
Weizenbaum Institute
Zusammenfassung

Online crowdwork platforms have been praised as powerful vehicles for economic development, particularly for workers traditionally excluded from the labor market. However, there has been insufficient scrutiny as to the feasibility of crowdwork as an income-source among socio-economically deprived populations. This paper examines device requirements and differential access to digital infrastructure, both of which act as potential barriers to not only basic participation but also to economic success. Given the increasing prevalence of mobile-first and mobile-only populations, research on this topic aids in understanding the crowdwork ecosystem among differing socio-economic sectors. Based on a survey of 606 crowd workers in the United States and India, this paper uses both quantitative and qualitative data to explore whether reliance on mobile devices is detrimental for the economic outcomes of crowdwork. The results point to substantial inequalities in device use and received benefits from crowdwork, within each country and between the two contexts.

Beschreibung
Schlagwörter
Economics \ News media, journalism, publishing \ Interactive, electronic Media \ Labor Market Research \ online service \ infrastructure \ cell phone \ employee \ digital divide \ technical equipment \ India \ digital media \ inequality \ United States of America \ Wirtschaft \ Publizistische Medien, Journalismus,Verlagswesen \ Crowdwork \ Mobile Underclass \ Digital Inequalities \ Amazon Mechanical Turk \ Arbeitsmarktforschung \ interaktive, elektronische Medien \ Digitale Medien \ Indien \ Arbeitnehmer \ Digitale Spaltung \ Mobiltelefon \ USA \ Online-Dienst \ Infrastruktur \ technische Ausstattung \ Ungleichheit
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Zitierform
Newlands, G., Lutz, C., & Hoffmann, C. P. (2019). Platform Labour and the Mobile Underclass: Barriers to Participation in the United States and India. Proceedings of the Weizenbaum Conference 2019: Challenges of Digital Inequality, 128–130. https://doi.org/10.34669/WI.CP/2.20