Informal employment on domestic care platforms: a study on the individualisation of risk and unpaid labour in mature market contexts

Valeria Pulignano, Claudia MarÃ, Milena Franke and Karol Muszynski
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Valeria Pulignano: Centre for Sociological Research (CeSo), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Claudia MarÃ: Centre for Sociological Research (CeSo), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Milena Franke: Centre for Sociological Research (CeSo), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Karol Muszynski: Centre for Sociological Research (CeSo), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 2023, vol. 29, issue 3, 323-338

Abstract: This article explains how digitally mediated provision of domestic care services perpetuates the invisibility and informality of such work through individualising risk, which we operationalise by one of its dimensions, that of unpaid labour. We understand unpaid labour as the cost of the risk borne individually by workers at the intersection of the social (inter-personal) and economic (monetary) spheres. Drawing on the experiences of domestic care workers providing their services through platforms, the study shows how platforms have made their way into the labour markets and welfare structures of two mature economies, Belgium and France. Via their (digital) rules, they pursue ‘regulatory compliance’ and ‘disruption’ as distinct strategies for establishing platform dominance, albeit with country-based differences. Platform-mediated employment outcomes remain generally unrecognised, undocumented and informal, with unpaid labour characterising the cost of the individualisation of risk.

Keywords: Domestic care work; labour platforms; informal work; unpaid labour; individualisation of risk; working conditions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:treure:v:29:y:2023:i:3:p:323-338

DOI: 10.1177/10242589231177353

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