Project description
Platform work, power and precarity
The expansion of platform-based work across Europe has created new forms of employment that combine flexibility with growing precarity under opaque algorithmic control. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the PRECANOMIES project examines how platform work is reshaping labour rights, autonomy and precarity in Slovenia, in comparison with Spain. By conducting ethnographic studies, digital fieldwork, algorithmic audits and policy analyses, researchers will investigate the way workers experience and negotiate within algorithmic management regimes that determine pay, visibility and labour conditions. The research findings are expected to inform more about the way digital labour platforms and regulation are impacting workers’ identity and autonomy in Europe.
Objective
The rapid growth of platform work, employing over 28 million people in the EU, poses urgent challenges for labour rights, identity, and governance. In Slovenia, a semi-peripheral country with around 30,000 platform workers, weak institutional frameworks, fragmented markets, and limited enforcement exacerbate precarity. Workers face the paradox of flexi-vulnerability: valuing autonomy and flexibility while remaining dependent on opaque algorithmic systems that control pay, visibility, and recognition. PRECANOMIES addresses this gap through an interdisciplinary, ethnographic study of platform work in Slovenia, in dialogue with Spain as a comparative case. The main objective is to analyse how algorithmic management and regulatory reforms shape worker identities, autonomy, and collective agency under regimes of technocontrol. Specific objectives include: (1) documenting workers’ narratives and everyday negotiations of precarity; (2) analysing the interaction between agency and algorithmic control through ethnography and exploratory audits; (3) mapping contractual and institutional arrangements; (4) tracing strategies of resistance and solidarity; and (5) advancing theoretical concepts such as flexi-vulnerability and algorithmic subjectivation. Methodologically, the project combines multi-sited ethnography, digital ethnography, algorithmic audits, and policy analysis. Its innovation lies in bridging micro-level lived experience, meso-level organisational practices, and macro-level EU regulation, positioning semi-peripheral Europe at the centre of global debates on digital labour governance.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
28040 Madrid
Spain
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.