ABSTRACT
Over the past 50 years the global labour market is transforming from reliable employment to low-wage and unstable informal and precarious jobs. This ineluctable shift is a consequence of the concentrated application of neoliberalism since the 1980s, as capitalism is converting standardised labour markets in the developed Global North into contingent and informal labour.
Platform Labour and Global Logistics: A Research Companion examines the most important developments and features of global logistics and the emergence of the platform economy through historical comparative chapters and case studies. Part I surveys the logistics revolution and its impact on labour in key sectors of the global economy and probes the viability of the platform as a generator of economic and financial growth and innovation. The chapters of Part 1 offer a fulsome analysis and critique of the economic and technical reconfiguration brought on by neoliberal capitalism and the diffusion of the platform and logistics as a feasible model into the future. Part II examines labour restructuring from standardized to informal work through the platform and information technology, and the political and environmental challenges to labour. Part III provides global case studies on the informal economy through case studies of crucial economies where the platform has become dominant, and Part IV examines how the platform has contributed to geographic mobility and labour migration, and the consequences on workers.
Platform Labour and Global Logistics: A Research Companion presents a unique contribution to the political economy literature through highlighting the significance of the impact of the platform and logistics on the working class and potential challenges from labour across the world. This book is intended for academics, researchers and students studying technological innovation, global supply chains, labour restructuring, and worker resistance.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|53 pages
Global Logistics and Platform Labour
part II|83 pages
Labour Restructuring and Platform Work
chapter 6|20 pages
Thriving Small-Scale Entrepreneurs or Precarious Own-Account Workers?
chapter 7|19 pages
A trade between flexibility and security
chapter 9|18 pages
New Forms of Agency or Atomization?
part III|92 pages
Global Case Studies of Platform and Informal Labour
chapter 12|13 pages
Piece Wages in US and Canadian Agriculture as Political Technologies of Labour Control
chapter 13|17 pages
Delivering (In)justice
chapter 14|18 pages
India's platform economy experience
chapter 15|13 pages
Entrepreneurship, Informality and the Platform Economy
part IV|47 pages
Migration and Platform Work