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WHAT IF YOUR BOSS WAS AN ALGORITHM?
The gig economy promises to revolutionise work as we know it, offering flexibility and independence instead of 9-to-5 drudgery. The potential benefits are enormous: consumers enjoy the convenience and affordability of on-demand work while micro-entrepreneurs turn to online platforms in search of their next gig, task, or ride.
IS THIS THE FUTURE OF WORK?
This book offers an engaging account of work in the gig economy across the world. Competing narratives abound: on-demand gigs offer entrepreneurial flexibility - or precarious work, strictly controlled by user ratings and algorithmic surveillance. Platforms' sophisticated technology is the product of disruptive innovation - whilst the underlying business model has existed for centuries.
HOW CAN WE PROTECT CONSUMERS & WORKERS WITHOUT STIFLING INNOVATION?
As courts and governments around the world begin to grapple with the gig economy, Humans as a Service explores the challenges of on-demand work, and explains how we can ensure decent working conditions, protect consumers, and foster innovation. Employment law plays a central role in levelling the playing field: gigs, tasks, and rides are work - and should be regulated as such.
List of contents
- Introduction
- 1: Work on Demand
- 2: Double Speak
- 3: Lost in the Crowd
- 4: The Innovation Paradox
- 5: Disrupting the Disruptors
- 6: Levelling the Playing Field
- Epilogue
About the author
Jeremias Prassl is a Fellow of Magdalen College and an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at Oxford University. He advises public and private sector organisations around the world on regulating the gig economy, and tweets about the future of work @JeremiasPrassl.
Summary
Is crowdsourcing the future of work? This book offers a lively and critical account of the gig economy: its promises and realities, what is at stake, and how we can ensure that customers, workers, platforms, and society at large benefit from this global and growing phenomenon.
Additional text
Prassl offers a good survey of the literature... Humans as a Service should guide you to other useful avenues of thought as we seek to rethink employment law for the future of work.
Report
Timely and thought-provoking, Humans as a Service is an important examination of the consequences of an important, disruptive economic development. Ray Bert, Civil Engineering
