The Gig Economy Project
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
How do gig workers take control of their data?
29 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A Rebel’s Guide to the Gig Economy is a series of podcasts by journalist Ben Wray and researcher Marini Thorne which gets behind the tech jargon and...
Why should gig workers join a union?
27 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A Rebel’s Guide to the Gig Economy is a series of podcasts by journalist Ben Wray and researcher Marini Thorne which gets behind the tech jargon and...
Why do gig platforms struggle to turn a profit?
25 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A Rebel's Guide to the Gig Economy is a series of podcasts by journalist Ben Wray and researcher Marini Thorne which gets behind the tech jargon a...
What makes platforms powerful?
21 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A Rebel's Guide to the Gig Economy is a series of podcasts by journalist Ben Wray and researcher Marini Thorne which gets behind the tech jargon a...
Is the gig economy good for migrants and ethnic minorities?
19 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A Rebel's Guide to the Gig Economy is a series of podcasts by journalist Ben Wray and researcher Marini Thorne which gets behind the tech jargon a...
Is the gig economy really a "godsend" for women?
17 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A Rebel's Guide to the Gig Economy is a series of podcasts by journalist Ben Wray and researcher Marini Thorne which gets behind the tech jargon a...
Is gig work really 'flexible'?
15 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A Rebel's Guide to the Gig Economy is a series of podcasts by journalist Ben Wray and researcher Marini Thorne which gets behind the tech jargon a...
Are gig workers their 'own boss'?
13 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A Rebel's Guide to the Gig Economy is a series of podcasts by journalist Ben Wray and researcher Marini Thorne which gets behind the tech jargon a...
What is the algorithm?
11 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A Rebel's Guide to the Gig Economy is a series of podcasts by journalist Ben Wray and researcher Marini Thorne which gets behind the tech jargon a...
Why are gig workers paid per task?
06 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A Rebel's Guide to the Gig Economy is a series of podcasts by journalist Ben Wray and researcher Marini Thorne which gets behind the tech jargon a...
A Rebel's Guide to the Gig Economy - Ep 1: What is the Gig Economy?
04 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A Rebel's Guide to the Gig Economy is a series of podcasts by journalist Ben Wray and researcher Marini Thorne which gets behind the tech jargon a...
The rise and fall of grocery delivery in Europe
29 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
"If you can go to the moon, why are you still going to the supermarket?” That was the pitch of Kağan Sümer, former CEO and co-founder of the...
Will the Platform Work Directive work?
18 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After years of wrangling within and between the EU institutions, the Platform Work Directive was finally agreed on 11 March. The directive aims to im...
The Brussels Appeal: Building the platform workers' movement
05 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On 21-22 February, platform workers’ gathered in Brussels for the transnational Alternatives to Uberisation forum. The forum came just a few days af...
Workers, algorithms & the EU: Interview with Aída Ponce Del Castillo
18 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As we approach the end of 2023, things are happening when it comes to the regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) in the European Union. After in...
Marx, piece wages & the gig economy: Interview w/ Dr Matthew Cole
01 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The gig economy is often talked about as ‘the future of work’, but if we look at history we find that its wage model - paying per output, rather t...
Has Austria's collective bargaining system tamed the food delivery platforms? Interview with Robert Walasinski
11 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When food delivery platforms land in a country, they arrive into pre-existing labour market and industrial relations norms. In some countries, those n...
The urban dimension in food delivery struggle: The story of the Riders Union Bologna
13 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How does the urban space and urban politics shape the relationship between food delivery platforms and their riders? In an article published in Social...
‘The alligators’: How Croatia legitimised the role of sub-contractors in the platform economy - Interview w/ Sunčica Brnardić
21 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sub-contracting in the platform economy is an increasingly pertinent issue in numerous countries across Europe, but no more so than in Croatia. In the...
Gendered digital labour: Interview with Al James
07 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The online, desk-based gig economy, sometimes known as cloudwork or crowdwork, has been growing rapidly in recent years. Everything from transcription...
Algorithms, Work and the European Directive - Interview with James Farrar and Sergi Cutillas
19 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Platform Work Directive has reached a crucial stage. The European Parliament’s Employment Committee has backed a text led by the parliament’s ...
Data power in the gig economy: Interview with data expert Jessica Pidoux
18 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
They call data the oil of the 21st century. Without it, the digital economy as we know it would grind to a halt. And just like oil, unrefined data is ...
Sweden’s election, the Nordic model and the gig economy - interview w/ GigWatch’s Felix Söderberg & Jacob Lundberg
17 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sweden goes to the polls on 11 September, in an election that comes in the midst of Europe’s twin economic and geopolitical crisis, with the war in ...
Why Uber has failed and what's next - interview with Paris Marx
26 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Uber Files revelations have let a thousand questions bloom about this Silicon Valley company that has broken all the rules, accumulated massive po...
'Life is a game': Laura Carrer and Luca Quagliato discuss their film on being a rider in the city
30 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What is it really like to be a rider in the city? Laura Carrer, freelance journalist on tech and its implications for digital and human rights, and Lu...
Work and resistance in Germany's platform economy - Interview with Oğuz Alyanak
11 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Germany is Europe’s largest economy, and it’s also a key site for Europe’s digital labour platforms, both as a major market and a source of vent...
‘We are still fighting against Macron, only now at the European level’: Interview with Edouard Bernasse of the Collective of Autonomous Platform Delivery Workers (CLAP)
02 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
France has been the beating heart of many of the great labour disputes of the past, and now it is at the centre of the debate over the future of work ...
Podcast: The historic Stuart Delivery strike
12 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Stuart Delivery strike is the longest ever in the UK’s gig economy. Initially running for 18 days from 6-24 December, it re-started again on 10 ...
From Gig Worker to Union Leader – Interview with Alex Marshall
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Gig Economy Project spoke to Alex Marshall, President of the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) and former delivery courier. Thi...
Organising gig workers in Belgium: Interview with Martin Willems of ‘United Freelancers’
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Can self-employed workers help rejuvenate trade unionism in Europe? Martin Willems thinks so. Willems is responsible for the United Freelancers sectio...
Workers’ inquiry and the global class struggle: interview with Robert Ovetz
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A burgeoning literature is seeking to understand 21st century capitalism from the perspective of work, the working class and class struggle. This ‘w...
The pandemic and the gig economy in global perspective: Interview with Kelle Howson
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How has the pandemic changed the gig economy? The Gig Economy Project spoke to Fair Work researcher Kelle Howson to find out. This podcast was first p...
The Gorillas Revolt: Interview with Zeynep Karlıdağ
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Gig Economy Project spoke to Zeynep Karlıdağ, rider at food delivery company Gorillas and member of the Gorillas’ Workers Collective, about th...
When platforms co-opt gig workers to their cause: Understanding Spain’s anti-labour movement of riders
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Podcast with José Domingo Roselló of the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT), which published a report into the pro-platform, astroturf movement of...
‘The difference between a slave and a worker’ – interview with Leïla Chaibi MEP
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Leïla Chaibi, the France Insoumise MEP, who sits on the European Parliament’s ‘committee on employment and social affairs’, published a draft p...
"The battle of ideas is won": Interview with ETUC's Ludovic Voet
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Gig Economy Project spoke to the European Trade Union Confederation’s Secretary Ludovic Voet about the EU Commission’s platform work directive...
Why we should fear a Prop-22 law for Europe: Interview with Anne Dufresne
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Brussels-based Anne Dufresne, co-author of new book "App Workers United - The Struggle for Rights in the Gig Economy", tells the Gig Economy Project t...
“Somos aquello que las empresas no quieren que exista”: Entrevista con Nuria Soto de RidersXDerechos
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Nuria Soto, del movimiento 'RidersXDerechos', dice al Gig Economy Project que la Ley Riders tiene sus problemas pero ha creado una "base para la lucha...
‘Somos el sindicalismo del futuro’: Entrevista con Alberto ‘Tito’ Álvarez
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
En este podcast de 9/10/21, el Gig Economy Project habla con el líder de Élite Taxi Barcelona, Alberto ‘Tito’ Álvarez, sobre cómo el sindicato...