PhD defence P. (Pallavi) Bansal

Below is a brief summary about the dissertation:

With the infiltration of platform-based business models in the global economy, the number of people using digital tools to find work has increased significantly. The rise of the digital labor platforms was expected to be more favourable for women workers due to increased flexibility and autonomy, but the nature of work on these platforms has been found to be often gendered and precarious. Moreover, the resultant “digital labor” is managed and controlled by efficiency-oriented AI-enabled algorithms, where the needs of the women workers are ignored due to their low representation. There is also a possibility that the societal biases including norms against women can be transferred into the machines as technology often reflects the values of its creators. While most of the studies in this area concentrate on the Global North, it is necessary to move this outside these normative borders, as increasingly these platforms are becoming important actors in the shaping of the future of work in the Global South. This dissertation focuses on the gig economy in India – a country that is one of the most religiously and ethnically diverse nations in the world, with its own set of gender stereotypes, cultural norms and infrastructural issues. In this dissertation, I investigate the concerns, issues and opportunities for platform labor reform with a focus on the ride-hailing sector using Bardzell (2010)’s feminist lens. The feminist viewpoint keeps the marginal user at the center committing to equity, diversity, identity, empowerment, and social justice to improve the work conditions of gig workers in the Global South. By conducting in-depth qualitative interviews with the different stakeholders of the ride-hailing sector, and analysing case studies, media coverage, policy papers, and research reports, I suggest guidelines for redesigning the digital labor platforms.