Platform care work: Between the formalization of work and the (re)production of inequalities

The monograph The Digitisation of Work and Life (eds. Aleksandra Kanjuo Mrčela, Andrej Kohont), recently published by FDV Publishing House, includes a chapter by Leja Markelj on the impact of platformization on home-based care work, a sector that is predominantly feminised, undervalued and often part of the informal economy. Through a literature review, the author concludes that the emergence of digital platforms serving as intermediaries for home-based care work is helping to address the care deficit and has the potential to provide decent working conditions in the sector as it often offers greater flexibility, increases the visibility of care work, and formalizes and professionalizes it. However, the author draws on findings from existing research to show that platform care work continues to perpetuate existing patterns of worker’s exploitation and falls short of meeting decent work standards. She concludes that platforms reorganize the care labour market according to their interests and fail to provide social protection, job security, decent wages and working hours, while introducing new forms of control through algorithmic management, further undermining workers’ autonomy.

The monograph includes contributions by 20 authors, each from their own field of research, exploring how digital technology is changing the ways we work and live in contemporary society. Drawing on a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches, the contributions highlight the interconnectedness of technological change with changes in society and identify how social relations enable, guide, accelerate or inhibit the use of new technological solutions.