‘God Is Protecting Me … And I Have Mace’: Defensive Labour In Precarious Workplaces

Isak Ladegaard, Alexandrea J Ravenelle and Juliet Schor

The British Journal of Criminology, 2022, vol. 62, issue 3, 773-789

Abstract: Since the 1970s, welfare cuts and market deregulation have made jobs increasingly precarious and workers have been made responsible for their own safety. In this context, technological developments have recently paved the way for the gig economy, in which tasks and services are distributed on digital platforms. Drawing on interviews with 32 Uber and Lyft drivers in New York City and Boston, we document how the intersecting forces of precarity, responsibilization and organizational innovation spawn the need for ‘defensive labour’, that is, emotional and cognitive self-protective practices.

Keywords: organizations; platforms; gig work; precarity; responsibilization; technology; Uber; emotional labour (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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