Abstract
The society of today is sometimes called a network society. The internet makes it possible to communicate globally. This network based new economy, is based on information, which means creating value using information and knowledge. The management of work, raw material, capital, production, development of new product and services, and consumption, is taking place globally through a network of people and organisations.
Different organisations can cooperate, perform different part of a business and work together in value adding processes. This structure is sometimes called a network organisation. In the concept open innovation, organisations cooperate with suppliers, competitors, universities, research centres, customers, and other people outside the organisation to develop products and service. Open innovation builds upon open communication and knowledge sharing between organisations and between organisations and people.
The platform economy, a variant of network organising, uses online platforms to coordinate and control contract workers. The platforms tend to use algorithmic management, based on customer rating and other performance indicators to channel away work for the workers who underscore. The work tasks in the platform economy vary a lot, from very narrow and simple tasks, so-called microwork, e.g. finding addresses on internet and completing surveys, to broader high-skilled tasks such as developing software or other new product and services. All platform work is however considered as precarious work, as the self-employed contractors can lose their job without notice, the workers lack social security benefits, and have to cover cost for insurances, technical infrastructure such as computers or vehicles.
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Notes
- 1.
In his book; The precariat. The new dangerous class, Guy Standing argues that the growing number of people with precarious low paid work competing with other people for short-term jobs tend to feel worried, frustrated and angry. Therefore, the precariat is an easy target for new fascist populistic partied that blame immigrants for unemployment and other problems in the society which in reality have more structural causes; neoliberal politics and practices.
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Börnfelt, PO. (2023). Network Organising. In: Work Organisation in Practice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21667-1_8
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