IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v38y2024i1p3-26.html

Platform Labour Unrest in a Global Perspective: How, Where and Why Do Platform Workers Protest?

Author

Listed:
  • Charles Umney

    (University of Leeds, UK)

  • Mark Stuart

    (University of Leeds, UK)

  • Ioulia Bessa

    (University of Leeds, UK)

  • Simon Joyce

    (University of Leeds, UK)

  • Denis Neumann

    (University of Leeds, UK)

  • Vera Trappmann

    (University of Leeds, UK)

Abstract

Labour unrest by platform workers is a growing global phenomenon, but several questions require deeper understanding. What motivates platform labour unrest? Which actors and strategies are involved? How does this vary across regions? Systematic answers are hindered by the lack of large datasets. Uniquely, this article analyses a global dataset comprising 1271 instances of platform labour unrest. It reveals two main dimensions of platform labour struggle: those defending or extending protective regulatory institutions (regulatory protests); and those seeking a larger share of value created (distributive protests). The former more often involve mainstream unions and methods like legal challenges. The latter more often involve grassroots organisation, and the collective withdrawal of labour and demonstrations. Theoretically, the article elaborates on Silver’s distinction between Marx-type and Polanyi-type labour unrest to explain and contextualise these findings. These patterns reveal variation within the growing wave of platform labour unrest that have not yet been systematically examined.

Suggested Citation

  • Charles Umney & Mark Stuart & Ioulia Bessa & Simon Joyce & Denis Neumann & Vera Trappmann, 2024. "Platform Labour Unrest in a Global Perspective: How, Where and Why Do Platform Workers Protest?," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 38(1), pages 3-26, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:38:y:2024:i:1:p:3-26
    DOI: 10.1177/09500170231209676
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09500170231209676
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/09500170231209676?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Angela Rauseo, 2018. "Riders on the Precarious Digital Work. Foodora and the Riders' Collective Action in Italy," Economia & lavoro, Carocci editore, issue 2, pages 43-52.
    2. Leighton, Patricia, 2016. "Professional self-employment, new power and the sharing economy: Some cautionary tales from Uber," Journal of Management & Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(6), pages 859-874, November.
    3. Bessa, Ioulia, & Joyce, Simon, & Neumann, Denis, & Stuart, Mark, & Trappmann, Vera, & Umney, Charles,, 2022. "A global analysis of worker protest in digital labour platforms," ILO Working Papers 995192093002676, International Labour Organization.
    4. Jovana Karanović & Hans Berends & Yuval Engel, 2021. "Regulated Dependence: Platform Workers’ Responses to New Forms of Organizing," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(4), pages 1070-1106, June.
    5. Ivanova, Mirela & Bronowicka, Joanna & Kocher, Eva & Degner, Anne, 2018. "Foodora and Deliveroo: The App as a Boss? Control and autonomy in app-based management - the case of food delivery riders," Working Paper Forschungsförderung 107, Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Düsseldorf.
    6. Michael David Maffie, 2020. "The Role of Digital Communities in Organizing Gig Workers," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(1), pages 123-149, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Elisabeth Bethge, 2025. "Voices Beyond the Road: Comparison of Online Employee Voice in Traditional Transport and the Ride-Sharing Industry," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 39(6), pages 1303-1328, December.
    2. Alex J Wood & Nicholas Martindale & Brendan J Burchell, 2025. "Beyond the ‘Gig Economy’: Towards Variable Experiences of Job Quality in Platform Work," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 39(5), pages 1154-1178, October.
    3. Kaveri Medappa, 2025. "‘Lived Capitalisation’: How Speculative Finance Shapes the Social and Financial Lives of ‘Gig’ Workers in Bengaluru, India," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 39(5), pages 1247-1268, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andrew Isaak & Baris Istipliler & Suleika Bort & Michael Woywode, 2025. "Regulation, Corruption, and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations: Insights from Bitcoin Trading and Platform Founding Between 2011 and 2023," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(6), pages 2210-2244, November.
    2. Mohammad Sajjad Hussain, 2023. "Learning to Strike in the Gig Economy: Mobilization Efforts by Food Delivery Workers in Hyderabad, India," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 18(3), pages 431-456, December.
    3. Simon Schaupp, 2022. "Algorithmic Integration and Precarious (Dis)Obedience: On the Co-Constitution of Migration Regime and Workplace Regime in Digitalised Manufacturing and Logistics," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 36(2), pages 310-327, April.
    4. Soriano, Cheryll Ruth, 2024. "Interactions of Filipino platform workers with AI systems: implications for design and governance of labour platforms," MediArXiv adeyt, Center for Open Science.
    5. repec:osf:socarx:y943w_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Shr, Yau-Huo & Chang, Hung-Hao, 2024. "The effects of participating in digital ride-hailing on taxi drivers’ business operations," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    7. Yang, Yihao & Chi, Ming & Bi, Xinhua & Xu, Yongshun, 2025. "Dark sides of algorithmic control in app-based gig work: An objectification perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    8. Wu, Jie & Zahoor, Nadia & Khan, Zaheer & Meyer, Martin, 2023. "The effects of inward FDI communities on the research and development intensity of emerging market locally domiciled firms: Partial foreign ownership as a contingency," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    9. Li, Jiatao & Surana, Ankit & Chavan, Meena & Kano, Liena & Schotter, Andreas & Chirico, Francesco, 2025. "The internationalization of digital platform-based firms: A systematic literature review and directions for future research," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 60(4).
    10. Wood, Alex & Lehdonvirta, Vili, 2021. "Antagonism beyond employment: how the ‘subordinated agency’ of labour platforms generates conflict in the remote gig economy," SocArXiv y943w, Center for Open Science.
    11. Maurizio Atzeni & Lorenzo Cini, 2024. "New theories and politics for working class organizing in the gig and precarious world of work," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 45(3), pages 937-958, August.
    12. Frank Martela & Sharda Nandram, 2025. "Buurtzorg: scaling up an organization with hundreds of self-managing teams but no middle managers," Journal of Organization Design, Springer;Organizational Design Community, vol. 14(4), pages 227-237, December.
    13. repec:osf:mediar:adeyt_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Meng‐Hsuan Chou & Catherine Gomes, 2023. "Politics of on‐demand food delivery: Policy design and the power of algorithms," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 40(5), pages 646-664, September.
    15. Noa Achouche & Miri Endeweld & Benjamin Bental, 2025. "Paths to Self-Employment: The Role of Childbirth Timing in Shaping Entrepreneurial Outcomes," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-23, June.
    16. Jinlei Qin & Meng Zhao & Jiali Ren & Bin Li, 2025. "Pricing strategy for C2C sharing platform considering the effect of WOM on purchase decision," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 25(6), pages 4371-4399, December.
    17. Nur Syazwani Mazlan & Fatin Aimi Naemah Norazmi & Rusmawati Said & Rahmita Wirza O. K. Rahmat & Nadia Mazlan, 2025. "Key Drivers of Gig Economy Participation in Malaysia," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 16(5), pages 16775-16801, November.
    18. Zhipeng Zhang & Runna Wang & Lu Shang & Kui Yin & Guangjian Liu & Xianxian Gui, 2025. "Injustice Provokes Psychological Resources Loss: A Dual-Pathway Model of App-worker Reactions to Customers’ Injustice," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 197(4), pages 713-738, April.
    19. Jingtao Yi & Jiatao Li & Liang Chen, 2023. "Ecosystem social responsibility in international digital commerce," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 54(1), pages 24-41, February.
    20. Liu, Jialing & Wei, Jiang & Liu, Yang & Jin, Duo, 2022. "How to channel knowledge coproduction behavior in an online community: Combining machine learning and narrative analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    21. Michael David Maffie, 2024. "Adversaries or Cross-Organization Co-workers? Exploring the Relationship between Gig Workers and Conventional Employees," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 77(1), pages 3-31, January.
    22. Tian, Chao & Tu, Kai & Sui, Haiqing & Sun, Qi, 2024. "Value co-creation in shared mobility: The case of carpooling in China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:38:y:2024:i:1:p:3-26. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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.