New theories and politics for working class organizing in the gig and precarious world of work

Maurizio Atzeni and Lorenzo Cini
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Maurizio Atzeni: CEIL/CONICET, Argentina/Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Chile
Lorenzo Cini: Cork University Business School, University College Cork, Ireland

Economic and Industrial Democracy, 2024, vol. 45, issue 3, 937-958

Abstract: The emergence of labour conflicts across different sectors of the gig and precarious economy is challenging established industrial relations (IR) frameworks and some of its political implications. Despite its analytical merits, Kelly’s union-centred mobilization theory appears insufficient to explain these mobilizations, characterized by informal networks and self-organization. Evidence from the sectors of logistics and cloudwork, where processes of digitalization have been rampant in recent years, shows that there is a need to build a more processual account of worker mobilizations in which non-institutional factors play a major role. Drawing on the European social movement tradition, in this article the authors consider two factors, supportive communities and political activism traditions, as key to understanding critical cases of mobilization in the gig economy and renewing IR theories of collective action through a class-based approach.

Keywords: Gig/precarious economy; mobilization theory; political activism traditions; supportive communities; worker mobilizations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:45:y:2024:i:3:p:937-958

DOI: 10.1177/0143831X231201009

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