What Platform Clients Care About: Relationality in the Gig Economy

Abstract

Platform-mediated work arises from networks of relationships between workers, platforms, and clients, representing complex relations between these actors. Knowledge of gig work has mostly emerged from studies of platform-worker interactions in transport and food delivery sectors, with little examination of the platform client perspective. With gig work now expanding to relational contexts like private care, it is important to understand the role of clients in shaping the experience and conditions of platform-mediated care work. This article explores platform clients' decision-making processes with a specific focus on choice of platform and, most importantly, engagement with platform workers. Employing ethics-of-care as a lens, the findings illustrate how the relational dimensions of solidarity, mutuality and attentiveness underpin platform clients' decisions. Clients seek to maintain a concern and care-for-self and also demonstrate care-for-others. This study demonstrates how platform clients' choices influence gig work relations and indeed shape conditions of care work in the gig economy.