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Precarity and agency in the gig economy
Encyclopedia entry

Precarity and agency in the gig economy

Lutfun Nahar Lata and Yajie Li
Elgar Encyclopedia of the Sociology of Education, pp.248-251
Elgar Encyclopedias in Sociology series, Edward Elgar Publishing
2025

Abstract

EDU034000 EDU040000 Education Education Policy Encyclopedias JHB JNA JNF SOC023000 SOC026000 Social and Sociological Theory Sociology of Education
The rise of the 'gig', 'sharing' or 'platform' economy has recently gained increasing scholarly attention due to the large-scale entry of labour into platform-based gig activities. Platform-mediated gig work has infiltrated many economic sectors, provoking scholarly inquiries about the question of whether digital casual labour is further exacerbating precarity; whether platforms are producing new modes of regulation, as well as labour movements and resistance to regulation. Within this context, this entry discusses the notions of precarity and agency as the starting point to pursue the two lines of inquiry: how do the gig activities on e-platforms deepen gig workers' precarity and vulnerability due to algorithmic control and lack of regulation, and how do the workers apply their agency to resist the algorithmic management?

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