The Reproduction and Restructuring of Inequality Through Platforms

Abstract

Platforms are the avant-garde of digitized work. Based on digital techniques, they develop innovative business models and new organisational forms. With this process, new inequalities arise and old ones are reproduced or transformed. The paper focuses on this transformation of inequalities via platforms. Specifically, with food courier work and private cleaning services, two major types of locally-linked, platform-mediated services in Germany are analyzed comparatively. These affect both vertical and horizontal inequalities.