300550 "New forms of work and social inequalities: new chances, new risks?" (MA: Sozialstruktur und soziale Ungleichheit) (S) (WiSe 2020/2021)

Digitalization processes give rise to fundamental changes in the world of work: In the last years, new forms of work enabled by digital technologies have developed. These include digital labour work on online platforms (crowdwork) as well as work that is distrubuted via online platforms but carried out offline (gigwork, i.e. food delivery or taxi driving), but also more flexible forms of „traditional“ forms of work (i.e. homeoffice). Though these new forms promise great flexibility and the chance for specific social groups to enter die labour market, they also have certain risks such as low labour protection and low employment security that might foster social inequalities. Moreover, chances and risks differ significantly between social groups.

In the course of this seminar, we will 1) differentiate and compare new forms of work enabled by digital technologies including crowdwork, gigwork and cloudwork. On the one side, we will discuss how these new forms of work are similar to more traditional forms of work regarding social inequalities. On the other side, we will discuss how they might involve new chances and risks along social diversities (for example gender, education, age, employment status). We will 2) look at whether chances and risks of known forms of work change due to digitalization processes.

The focus of this seminar will be on the analysis and discussion of current empirical studies. In addition, findings will be embedded and discussed with regard to theories of social structure and social inequalities.

Note: Due to the current pandemic of the Corona-Virus SarsCov-2 the sessions of this seminar will be held completely digitally via Zoom-Meetings. Updates regarding the procedure of the seminar will be communicated via e-mail as soon as possible.