The 2019 general election has already led to much soul-searching on the left. In particular, the loss of many seats in the, so-called, ‘red wall’ of historically safe seats in Wales, the Midlands and the North appears to demonstrate the social distance between the Party’s left-wing cosmopolitan London activists and its traditional working-class base. Why […]
Author archives: Alex Wood
Remembering Willy Brown: a great researcher and teacher of labour relations
Willy Brown sadly passed away on Thursday 1st August 2019. I was lucky enough to have gotten to know him over the past seven years. Although he wasn’t my supervisor the kindness and support he offered me, when there was no obligation for him to do so, will be familiar to many. I first met […]
Goodbye to the OII
After three years and nine months, I’m leaving the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) at the end of the month to take up a Lectureship in the Sociology Work at Birmingham University. I’ll be joining a highly regarded group of researchers in the ‘Organisation, Work and Employment Group’ at the Department of Management. I joined the OII […]
Networked but commodified: digital labour in the remote gig economy
Research by Alex J. Wood, Mark Graham and others shows how gig economy platforms commodify labour in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Post-work fallacies and the social reproduction of capitalism
“In the U.K., one in five jobs is going to be automated… technology… has a contradictory element because on the one hand it makes you more precarious as a worker. On the other hand, it shows what you can be when liberated from work because you’ve got all this extra time. You can imagine different […]
Challenging exploitation in the gig economy
Workers are creating self-organized digital communities to support and help each other. Alex J. Wood and Mark Graham report the findings of their new study.
Three lessons the labour movement must learn from the Fight for 15 at Walmart
Social media, the power of reputational damage, and effective communications are powerful tools for trade union organising.
Variable geographies of protest among online gig workers
Millions of people across the planet use online labour platforms to make their living as part of the global gig or platform economy. One part of the iLabour project is to understand how worker voice and collective action shape institutions in this setting.
Taylor Review: The government must stop delaying protection for gig economy workers
The fragmentation of work over the last decade has given birth to the on-demand economy. In this new world of work, we can no longer expect to work a standard nine to five week; instead, self-employed and traditionally employed workers alike scramble to make a living from online labour platforms and zero hour contracts, where […]
Government response to the Taylor Review: Good news on zero hour contracts but delay on gig economy
Today the government released their response to the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices. The government’s recognition that good quality work is important is very welcome. Unfortunately, much of the substance of the government’s response focuses on the need for further consultation and additional consideration. Six months after the publications of the Review’s recommendations, we […]