The Routledge Handbook of the Gig Economy

Research on the growth of the precarious economy is of significant interest, as the economy increasingly becomes dependent on gig work. However, as platform and automated service work has grown, there remains a chasm in understanding the key aspects of digital labour. This handbook presents comprehensive theoretical, empirical and historical accounts of the political economy of informal work from the late twentieth century to the present. It examines the rich and varied analysis and critique of the informalization of work, focusing on its most significant theories, intellectual traditions, and authors. It highlights the political, social, cultural and developmental impact of the deterioration of employment in the global North and global South, and the extreme threat posed to the planet by the growth of contingent work, poverty and enduring and increasing inequalities produced and reproduced by the reformation of capitalism in the contemporary age of neoliberal capitalism. The period from the 1980s to the present is marked by the expanded extraction of surplus value from workers through the creation of nonstandard jobs and the restructuring of work. A central component of the restructuring of work is the extension of gig employment through the development of algorithmic platforms which direct labourers to perform discrete tasks. This is a definitive collection, representing the primary reference work, contributing to our understanding of the subject. The book is written and presented in a clear manner, accessible to scholars and researchers of international political economy, labour economics and sociology who are eager for new research examining this phenomenon, as well as, specialists in the field of labour relations.