Cooperative solidarity among crowdworkers? Social learning practices on a crowdtesting social media platform

Abstract

The paper analyzes social interactions among crowdworkers on Discord. The explored crowdtesting platform uses this social media platform to offer their crowdworkers various opportunities for work-related and private communication and to host events that encourage learning practices. The paper investigates to what extent the interactions on Discord can be analyzed as social learning practices and can be understood as a specific form of solidarity among crowdworkers. In an explorative online ethnographic study, two learning related channels of the platform company’s Discord server were observed: the question channel in which testers can ask for help, and the quiz channel in which a testing related quiz event takes place. Additionally, interviews with moderators and crowdtesters were conducted. The observation of learning practices on Discord makes clear that the social media tool is mostly used by testers for situational and functional information exchange like helping each other with bug classifications or solving technical problems. Testers mostly provide each other with brief information that can directly be applied in the work context. Further information are mainly shared by moderators that offer supplementary explanations as a possibility to self-help. The study highlights that a form of weak cooperative solidarity emerges among testers as they support each other via Discord to fulfill individual work tasks. This differs from resistant solidarity in other contexts of platform work, because in the observed case, platform workers’ solidarity is not directed against the platform company.