Work package 1: Overview and quantification of online labour markets
To obtain a quantitative overview of the online gig economy, we built the "Online Labour Index", an automated data collection system that collects data from 11 major online platforms in real time and compiles them into an online equivalent of conventional labour market statistics. Among other things, the data reveals that the global market for online gig work almost doubled in size from 2016 to 2021. Our system automatically publishes the data openly at onlinelabourobservatory.org. We have published two academic articles describing the system, and our data is used by many other researchers and organizations, including in OECD, World Bank, and ILO flagship publications. In 2021, we completed a successful technology transfer process supported by an ERC Proof-of-Concept Grant where the technical and financial maintenance of the system was transferred to the ILO. This way, the system will continue to operate and publish data beyond the end of the iLabour project.
Work package 2: Online labour market institutions
To identify influential rules and policies (ie. institutions) in the online gig economy, and how those rules are created, we reviewed existing literature on online labor markets and the gig economy, studied the user interfaces of major online labor platforms, and negotiated access for qualitative/ethnographic fieldwork at a major online labor platform company. A team member conducted a 1-year ethnographic study, combining traditional ethnographic methods of participant observation, in-depth interviews, and document analysis, with a digital ethnography of the platform’s online interactional spaces. This resulted in an extensive and unique dataset, unparallelled in its coverage - including data from a full year of etnographic fieldwork inside the platform, of the platform’s leadership team, of core strategic projects, and of the platform’s users. The data is used in academic publications.
Work package 3: Online labour movements
To study how platform workers organise and express collective voice in the online gig economy, we collected data from gig workers' public online discussion forums (N=1100). This data was analysed geographically in to map where in the world online platform worker contestation happens. This map of platform worker contestation was then used inform the choice of ethnographic fieldwork sites: San Francisco Bay, Los Angeles and New York City, London and Manila. Ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the aforementioned places in 2017 yielded 71 semi-structured interviews (20 US workers; 8 UK workers; 35 workers in the Philippines; 8 freelancer advocates) and participant observation of a dozen freelancer community events. Based on this data we have published articles in leading academic journals, explaining why and under what conditions online gig workers join in collective action, and against whom.
Work package 4: Shifting boundaries and networks
Based on cross-cutting analysis across the different work packages, the PI Vili Lehdonvirta wrote a book titled "Cloud Empires: How Digital Platforms Are Overtaking The State and How We Can Regain Control". The book is published by MIT Press in September 2022. An Italian translation has been confirmed.
