Freelancing and Labor in the Digital Economy

ABSTRACT

With this position paper we encourage attention to one future of work: project-based, gig-, or freelancing workers who find their work online . Online freelancers and the online labor markets where they seek work are a relatively recent subset of the labor force and a new form of labor markets, seen by many as both a means to provide opportunities for workers seeking flexible employment arrangements – ‘gigs’ – and for organizations to help absorb market shocks (Gray and Suri, 2019; Kalleberg, 2003; Lehdonvirta et al., 2019). In the face of the economic upheaval due to the novel coronavirus, these workers and their online labor market are experiencing substantial changes.

Keywords

contingent work, knowledge work, freelance work, computerization, automation, labor markets, platforms, infrastructure

ABOUT THE AUTHOR/S

Steve Sawyer
Syracuse University
ssawyer@syr.edu

“Steve Sawyer is on the faculty of Syracuse University’s iSchool. His research focuses on the changing forms of work and organizing enabled through uses of digital technologies. His work is done through detailed field-based studies that advance sociotechnical approaches to studying computing collectively known as social informatics. Prior to returning to Syracuse, Steve was a founding faculty member of the Penn State’s iSchool.
https://ischool.syr.edu/people/directories/view/ssawyer/”

Michael Dunn
Skidmore College
mdunn@skidmore.edu

J.P. Rancy
Syracuse University
jrancy@syr.edu

Isabel Munoz
Syracuse University
iimunoz@syr.edu

Raghav Raheja
Syracuse University
rraheja@g.syr.edu

Gabrielle Vaccaro
Skidmore College
gvaccaro@skidmore.edu

Alaina Caruso
Syracuse University
agcaruso@syr.edu

Haley Weller
Syracuse University
heweller@syr.edu

Lily Moffly
Syracuse University
lmoffly@syr.edu

New Future of Work ’20, August 3–5, 2020
© 2020 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).