IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v35y2021i5p914-930.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reproducing Global Inequalities in the Online Labour Market: Valuing Capital in the Design Field

Author

Listed:
  • Pelin Demirel

    (Imperial College London, UK)

  • Ekaterina Nemkova

    (IESEG School of Management, France)

  • Rebecca Taylor

    (University of Southampton, UK)

Abstract

Millions of freelancers work on digital platforms in the online labour market (OLM). The OLM’s capacity to both undermine and reproduce labour inequalities is a theme in contemporary platform economy debates. What is less well understood is how processes of social (re)production take place in practice for diverse freelancers on global platforms. Drawing on a study of freelance designers, we use Bourdieu’s notions of capital and field to explore the specific ‘rules of the game’ and the symbolic valuing of skills and identities that secure legitimacy and advantage in the OLM. We contribute to contemporary debates by illuminating the power of Global North actors to shape freelancer positions and hierarchies in the online design field. The ‘cost advantages’ of Global South workers are counterbalanced by the symbolic legitimising of specific cultural and social practices (specifically in relation to language) and the devaluing of others.

Suggested Citation

  • Pelin Demirel & Ekaterina Nemkova & Rebecca Taylor, 2021. "Reproducing Global Inequalities in the Online Labour Market: Valuing Capital in the Design Field," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 35(5), pages 914-930, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:35:y:2021:i:5:p:914-930
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017020942447
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017020942447
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0950017020942447?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:35:y:2021:i:5:p:914-930. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.