{"title":"Gig Economy Riders on Social Media in Thailand: Contested Identities and Emergent Civil Society Organisations.","authors":"Yannik Mieruch, Daniel McFarlane","doi":"10.1007/s11266-022-00547-7","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The emergence of the gig economy has generated a new class of workers who are categorised as independent \"partners\" instead of employees with rights to labour protection. Triggered by observations of a protest movement by platform-based delivery riders in Thailand, we engaged in seven months of digital ethnographic research of riders' interactions online to understand the emergence of informal groups facilitating mutual aid and collective action. Civil society research has neglected to analyse such groups within the gig economy. The study finds that social media is a site for the development and contestation of identity narratives. We observed a \"Hero\" narrative that glorifies delivery riders' independent status and a \"Worker\" narrative that challenges riders' conditions. We argue that these collective identity narratives crucially facilitate or inhibit the emergence of labour-oriented civil society organisations, thus contributing to third sector research that examines civil society in the Global South.</p>","PeriodicalId":48082,"journal":{"name":"Voluntas","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3000,"publicationDate":"2022-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9713205/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Voluntas","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-022-00547-7","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"SOCIAL ISSUES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The emergence of the gig economy has generated a new class of workers who are categorised as independent "partners" instead of employees with rights to labour protection. Triggered by observations of a protest movement by platform-based delivery riders in Thailand, we engaged in seven months of digital ethnographic research of riders' interactions online to understand the emergence of informal groups facilitating mutual aid and collective action. Civil society research has neglected to analyse such groups within the gig economy. The study finds that social media is a site for the development and contestation of identity narratives. We observed a "Hero" narrative that glorifies delivery riders' independent status and a "Worker" narrative that challenges riders' conditions. We argue that these collective identity narratives crucially facilitate or inhibit the emergence of labour-oriented civil society organisations, thus contributing to third sector research that examines civil society in the Global South.
期刊介绍:
The official journal of the International Society for Third-Sector Research, Voluntas is an interdisciplinary international journal that aims to be the central forum for worldwide research in the area between the state, market, and household sectors. The journal combines full-length articles with shorter research notes (reflecting the latest developments in the field) and book reviews. Voluntas is essential reading for all those engaged in research into the Third Sector (voluntary and nonprofit organizations) including economists, lawyers, political scientists, psychologists, sociologists, and social and public policy analysts. It aims to present leading-edge academic argument around civil society issues in a style that is accessible to practitioners and policymakers.