Conference Agenda

Research on platform work has largely focused on algorithmic management in delivery and ride-hailing. This article shifts attention to care platforms to deepen empirical and theoretical understanding of how they employ nuanced forms of control. Building on the ‘conceptions of control’ (Fligstein 2001), we theorize the 'digital moral economy' of care by examining how care and domestic platforms create the perception of a legitimate 'digital market.' Specifically, we analyse how platforms deploy normative frameworks and discursive strategies to construct a 'digital moral economy' of care. We argue that these frameworks morally justify algorithmic management as a legitimate means of facilitating economically driven transactions. By doing so, platforms perpetuate the 'care crisis,' normalizing a form of casualized care and domestic work that remains detached from broader social support systems.

The study asks two key questions: how does AI-based algorithmic management intersect with existing welfare structures and actors in care? How do workers experience the provision of their care and domestic services through platforms?

The empirical investigation is based upon a total of sixty-five interviews conducted between Summer 2020 and Spring 2023. Our study included 56 narrative interviews with workers performing a variety of care and domestic services through two platforms (Helpper, Ring Twice) in Belgium and two platforms (Aide au Top/Top Help, Yoopies) in France, four interviews with platforms’ management and unions in the care sector, and five interviews with managers of non-profit organisations which support a variety of people, including disabled, in need of care services in both countries. We do not compare workers–platform relations across countries but within the country of origin of the platform to guarantee consistency between the operations of the platform and the welfare system.

The analysis challenges the view that care platforms control workers solely through technology. Instead, the 'digital moral economy’ of care explains how platforms use normative frameworks to exert control through moral justifications aimed at legitimizing and normalizing technology-mediated transactions. Justifications stem from values and norms that shape access to welfare. In Belgium, platforms are a ‘gift’ offering flexible, tax-exempted, free-services, where citizens are unaccustomed to such provisions. In France, platforms enhance transactions as ‘digital encounters’ within a welfare context more attuned to such services. Platforms thus address the ‘care crisis’ by legitimizing technologically-embedded transactions while normalizing socially-dis-embedded casual care, domestic work.

This paper aims to map the platformisation of female-dominated cleaning and care activities in French-speaking Switzerland, and examine the structuring role of digital intermediaries on the organisation and value of work. At a time when most countries in the Global North are characterised by population ageing, the implementation of neoliberal and austerity cuts in public services since 2008 (Schwiter et al., 2018) has increased pressure on social care systems (Dowling, 2021), compounding the broader crisis of social reproduction (Fraser, 2016). These tensions favour the commodification and externalisation of domestic tasks (Huws, 2019), and the platformisation of domestic and care activities is an expression of these trends. Over the last decade, digital labour platforms have emerged in the domestic and care sectors (Ticona & Mateescu, 2018), disrupting traditional employment relationships (Schwaab, 2021), but their impacts on working conditions are still debated in the literature. Recent research has questioned whether platforms are likely to affect work in an already highly precarious sector. While it is acknowledged that platforms tend to reproduce the fragilisation characterising non-standard employment (Strüver & Bauriedl, 2022), some aspects of platforms may contribute to the formalisation of work relationships (Ticona & Mateescu, 2018), although under the form of a “selective formalisation” (van Doorn, 2020). Overall, we still know little about how digital platforms shape working conditions in these female-dominated activities and how this may happen differently depending on the types of platforms and across contexts. This paper aims to shed light on this under-researched topic, by exploring the development of digital labour platforms in this sector in French-speaking Switzerland. This country constitutes an interesting case of study, characterised by a complex, multi-level regulatory framework. The paper uses a mixed methods approach combining digital methods (Rogers, 2019) to obtain data from 31 platforms, which are examined quantitatively and qualitatively. The findings show an important heterogeneity in platform characteristics and different levels of platformisation according to the kind of activities platforms operate in: multi-activity, cleaning, care, cleaning and care combined. A “transactional" intermediation model replicates the traditional informal labour market in the multi-sector (and in a more emergent way in care activities). An "organisational" model, with a more structuring role from the platform, is more common in cleaning and favours a contractual relationship at the expense of task fragmentation. Regardless of the sector, our findings show that platformisation continues to reproduce and reshape the social and monetary devaluation characterising these activities.

Over the last decade, there has been substantial growth in digital platform-mediated work in the domestic care work sector. Yet despite a growing interest on the impact on care work, the decent work implications remain relatively under-researched. Examinations of decent work in the gig economy have typically concentrated on transport and delivery platforms (e.g. Uber or Deliveroo) where gigs are characteristically one-off, intermediated by the platform app, and involve relatively limited client interaction (Healy & Pekarek, 2024). In contrast platform-mediated care work involves intimate client interactions (McDonald et al., 2021; Ticona & Mateescu, 2018) and as we know from research in the care economy, domestic care work is complex, relational and multi-varied, comprising of different types of private work arrangements shaped by relationships between multiple parties (ILO, 2018; Macdonald, 2021; MacLeavy, 2021). There has been limited exploration of the various types of gig work arising from intermediary care platforms to inform our understanding of working conditions, workers’ rights and interests and subsequently opportunities for decent work (Khan et al., 2023).

In this paper, we systematically examine the organization of platform-mediated care work arrangements by interrogating the perspectives of critical actors – care-workers, care-platforms and care-seekers/platform clients. We propose an empirically informed typology of care work ‘gigs’ and consider the associated decent work implications.

Our data comprised 65 interviews with care-workers and care-seekers using digital platforms and an analysis of websites and features of the14 digital intermediary platforms offering care services in Australia. Our findings demonstrated how the intersecting motivations and interactions between these actors produce three distinct categories of heterogenous care work arrangements. The typology reflects the varying temporal and relational aspects of care work and challenges pre-conceptions of what constitutes a ‘gig’, raising new questions about the role of platforms and platform clients in supporting longer-term work arrangements. Adopting the pillars of decent work as an analytical heuristic we discuss how the typology identified from the data impacts the conditions of work, reshapes the boundaries of social protection, workers’ rights and interests.

The insights from this paper highlight how the relationships between workers, platforms and clients shape working conditions in platform-mediated care work in differential ways according to the type or nature of the gig. This understanding is critical to informing policy regulating care work in the gig economy. This paper also advances knowledge on the disruptive impact of new technologies on decent work in the care economy.

Abstract

Domestic work, a significant yet undervalued sector of the informal economy, encompasses 75.6 million of workers globally, including an official estimated 4.75 million in India, however the real numbers may range till 50 million. This sector is characterized by precarious employment, low wages, unsafe working conditions, and absence of legal protections. Despite their critical role in supporting households and economies, domestic workers (‘DWs’) remain excluded from the major labour laws. This research addresses the urgent need to institutionalize the domestic work sector by transitioning it into a regulated framework aligned with the principles of decent work and social protection, as envisioned by the International Labour Organization.

Research Questions

1. What legal and policy measures are necessary to extend labour rights to DWs in India?

2. What are the barriers to formalizing domestic work, and how can these be overcome to ensure social and economic security?

Methodology

The study employs a mixed-methods approach, combining doctrinal research with empirical data collected from Siliguri, India. Primary data from 100 DWs, 100 employers and Regional Labour Department is analyzed to recognize socio-economic constraints, legal gaps, and discriminatory practices faced by DWs. The qualitative component includes interviews and focus group discussions with DWs, employers, Labour Department of Government and stakeholders from NGOs.

Contribution to Literature

This research contributes to the discourse on labour rights in informal employment by integrating empirical insights with theoretical frameworks, including the capability approach and substantive equality principles. It critically examines the inadequacies in India's labour legislation and compares best practices from countries like South Africa, Brazil, and the Philippines that have successfully regulated domestic work.

Findings

The study highlights a persistent power imbalance between employers and DWs, driven by socio-economic disparities and legal exclusions. Findings reveal that 70% of DWs earn less than ₹6,000 per month, with 87% lacking health or social security benefits. Furthermore, no workers have formal written contracts, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation and forced labour conditions. The research underscores the need for a dedicated domestic workers’ legislation including mandatory contracts, minimum wage regulations, and access to social security.

By advocating for the institutionalization of the domestic work sector, this study provides actionable policy recommendations to facilitate the transition of DWs from informal employment to a regulated and equitable formal economy in line with the ILO Domestic Workers Convention, 2011.

This study investigates the restructuring of labor relations amid technological advancement, platformization, and global inequality. It argues that the conventional wage-centered labor paradigm and the assumption of self-sufficient individuals are inadequate to explain emerging labor market dynamics shaped by automation and AI. Central to this analysis is the structural invisibility of unpaid domestic labor—primarily performed by women—which remains excluded from national accounting systems and formal labor policies.

Employing the Labor-Employment Independence Model (LEIM), the study conceptualizes unpaid care work as an alternative labor market with measurable economic value. Using time-use data and opportunity cost analysis, the model estimates this labor’s contribution to GDP and offers a normative framework for policy design. Case studies from Turkey and Libya reveal gender-based disparities in labor allocation and underscore the implications of recognizing unpaid care work for labor equality, human rights, and inclusive development.

The paper highlights the contrast between paid care professions and unpaid domestic labor, arguing that the latter's systemic devaluation restricts women's access to social protection, education, and employment. It calls for a rights-based economic model that integrates unpaid labor into formal systems to ensure fairer value distribution and gender-sensitive policy reforms. The study contributes to ongoing debates on labor market transformation in response to demographic shifts and the expanding care economy.