Project description
Pandemic exposes plight of food delivery drivers
The coronavirus pandemic boosted food delivery companies across Europe. It also shed new light on the plight of gig workers during lockdowns. The EU-funded COGONU project will explore the mobilisation of food delivery couriers. Specifically, it will investigate the causes, trajectories and outcomes of mobilisations of these workers since 2016 in different European cities before and during the COVID-19 crisis. The project will analyse three cases of mobilisation that have exhibited variation in terms of action repertoire, forms of organising, alliance building and target, to understand the dynamics of contention, their political strategies and policy outcomes. The findings will be shared with researchers and partner organisations, and policymakers.
Objective
In response to the rise of a new labour governance regime in the platform economy, militant forms of worker mobilization have recently emerged across Europe, exhibiting novel forms of organisation and action repertoires. The research action “COntesting GOvernance by NUmbers: The Mobilizations of Food Delivery Couriers across Europe in Time of the Pandemic (COGONU)” investigates the causes, trajectories, and outcomes of mobilizations of these workers since 2016 in different European cities before and during the Covid crisis.
The action has three main research objectives:
1. it maps all episodes of couriers’ mobilizations across Europe since 2016 accounting for similarities and differences in terms of strategies, action repertoire, and mobilization capacity.
2. it conducts an in-depth analysis of three cases of mobilization that have exhibited variation in terms of action repertoire, forms of organizing, alliance building and target, to understand the dynamics of contention, their political strategies, and policy outcomes.
3. it aims to explore the processes of transnational coordination and organization among couriers, union representatives, and activists and their feedback effects on both corporate and EU governance.
The action includes a comprehensive training plan, which enhances my career opportunities across sectors as well as academic departments. The UCD School of Business, the UCD Geary Institute for Public Policy and its ERC Research Group “Labour Politics and the EU’s New Economic Governance Regime” (host institution), along with the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) (secondment institution), will provide me with excellent interdisciplinary research skills and development opportunities. The action also incorporates an ambitious dissemination and communication plan that promotes knowledge exchange between the researcher and partner organizations as well as the production of valuable knowledge for policy makers and citizens at local, national and EU level.
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Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
4 Dublin
Ireland