Unveiling ‘algorithm governance': shaping labor platforms' strategies and working conditions in the digital era
Weizenbaum Journal of the Digital Society
2024
4
3
1-10
digital economy ; crowd work ; labour relations ; working conditions
Working conditions
https://doi.org/10.34669/WI.WJDS/4.3.6
English
Bibliogr.
"Research on platform work has primarily focused on analyzing how algorith-mic management influences working conditions by empowering platforms to govern digitally-delivered services. However, prior research has overlooked the crucial aspect of how algorithmic management underlies platforms' use of diverse contractual forms of employment available in the labor markets from where they source their workforces. Bridging this gap is vital to understand-ing how labor platforms integrate algorithm management, which employs digitally programmed procedures for coordinating and governing labor input, with various contractual employment structures influenced by regulations and collective actors such as trade unions. Coined as algorithm governance, this phenomenon represents the fusion of algorithm management with contractual employment frameworks, emanating from labor market regulations and poli-cies. This essay pioneers the concept of algorithm governance, illuminating its ontological capacity to enrich debates on algorithm management. Algorithm governance thus explains how algorithm management intricately shapes work-ing conditions by influencing the use of diverse contractual employment forms within the labor market."
Digital
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