Meatspace Press
02 / Meatspace Press / 2017

Towards a Fairer Gig Economy

A short collection examining the social and economic problems of gig work, from oversupply of labour and falling wages to long hours and weak bargaining power.

Cover of Towards a Fairer Gig Economy
Edited byMark Graham and Joe Shaw
FormatPamphlet / 35 pages
DesignIrene Beltrame
LicenceCreative Commons BY-NC-SA

About the book

Our second pamphlet ‘Towards a Fairer Gig Economy’ is available now via our shop as a physical paperback or digital download.

There are also a small number of limited edition silkscreen A2 posters available, featuring artwork from this pamphlet and ‘Our Digital Rights to the City.’

“Unions cannot collectively bargain with an algorithm, they can’t appeal to a platform, and they can’t negotiate with an equation.” Dawn Gearhart from Teamsters Local 117

‘Towards a Fairer Gig Economy’ is a small collection of articles examining the social and economic problems associated with the ‘gig economy’. The gig economy includes a wide range of labour carried out by workers providing services as couriers, taxi drivers, online freelancers and more. Issues examined include an over-supply of labour, falling wages, long hours and poor working conditions. Each article makes suggestions for how these problems can be addressed and how a fairer gig economy can be built: including through regulation, collective bargaining and wider policy recommendations. The collection’s contributors include cycle couriers, union organisers, academics and researchers.

The collection is edited by Mark Graham and Joe Shaw, and its contributing authors are: Janine Berg, Christina Colclough, Mags Dewhurst, Dawn Gearhart, Philip Jennings, Guy McClenahan, Trebor Scholz, M. Six Silberman, Nick Srnicek and Valerio De Stefano.

Illustrations by: Irene Beltrame

Contributors

Janine Berg, Christina Colclough, Mags Dewhurst, Dawn Gearhart, Mark Graham, Philip Jennings, Guy McClenahan, Trebor Scholz, Joe Shaw, M. Six Silberman, Nick Srnicek and Valerio De Stefano.

Open access

Read / download

Publication artwork for Towards a Fairer Gig Economy
Original Meatspace publication artwork
Visual archive

Artwork / fragments

Artwork from Towards a Fairer Gig Economy
Artwork from Towards a Fairer Gig Economy
Artwork from Towards a Fairer Gig Economy
Inside

Contents

Contributions by Janine Berg, Christina Colclough, Mags Dewhurst, Dawn Gearhart, Mark Graham, Philip Jennings, Guy McClenahan, Trebor Scholz, Joe Shaw, M. Six Silberman, Nick Srnicek and Valerio De Stefano