New forms of work and employment in the digital economy

Abstract

To what extent does the accelerated development of the digital economy contribute to the political process of deconstruction of employment and reformulation of the category of ‘worker’? This paper considers some recent innovations in the digitalisation of the economy, which are intertwined with new forms of work and employment: Internet-based virtual work, on-demand work through online platforms, crowd working, and ‘prosumer’ work. Several dimensions of the employment relationship are called into question by these trends: concept of workplace (and its aspects related to working conditions); formation of wages; meaning and measurement of working time; blurring of reporting lines; representation of workers’ interests; and more generally the meaning of work and solidarity.