International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy is seeking submissions for their Special Issue on ‘The informal economy and digital labour platforms: Opportunities, risks, and challenges for workers’. The Guest Editors of this issue are Iraklis Dimitriadis (Scuola Normale Superiore, Italy) and Diego Coletto (University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy).
Most existing literature on digital labour platforms (DLPs) focuses attention on the effects of DLPs on formal employment, highlighting processes of the informalisation of work, which has happened in some formal economic activities, and its relationship with the spread of DLPs. Moreover, critical sociologists and labour law experts have highlighted how and to what extent DLPs exercise control over labour processes through algorithms and offer poor working conditions, thus recalling some of the aspects that usually characterise the informal economy. Studies that analyse the relation between the informal economy and DLPs are still scant and mainly focused on the Global South.
In general, the special issue will provide new theoretical insights on (in)formal workers’ involvement in the platform economy and the relation between DLPs and informal work.
List of Topics:
Informal economy
Informal work
Digital labour platforms
Employment relations
Decent work
Meanings of work
Key deadlines
Opening date for manuscripts submissions: 01/05/2024
Closing date for manuscripts submission: 30/01/2025
For more details on the submission process, see https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/calls-for-papers/informal-economy-and-digital-labour-platforms-opportunities-risks-and-challenges