Project Information
Platform Economy and Social Security: Work and Security Orientations of the Digital Self-Employed between De- and Re-institutionalisation
Goal
Digital platforms are becoming a structural characteristic of the modern economy. They bring together supply and demand for goods and services and reduce search costs. As a new form of organisation, they offer opportunities for innovation, economic productivity and new employment opportunities as much as they challenge the established regulatory mechanisms and securities of the social market economy. Employment opportunities created via digital platforms gain attention because they are said to lead the way in intensifying the flexibilisation of work and employment - especially with respect to the increasing volatility and hybridity of individual employment arrangements.
Platforms offer (solo-) self-employed workers the opportunity to increase their visibility, enlarge their client base and reduce search costs for gigs. Vulnerable labour market groups such as people with disabilities may benefit from the low-threshold access in the platform economy and are given opportunities to participate in the labour market. At the same time, paid work in the platform economy is highly de-institutionalised and deregulated. The result is an intensified asymmetry of power between the contracting companies and the platform workers, which – in combination with untransparent digital technologies and algorithms of the platforms – can lead to negative effects. In addition to low pay, the risks of insufficient social security in this highly volatile form of digital self-employment are also highlighted.
Against the background of the digitalisation and platformisation of work and employment, the project focuses on the social security of self-employed people in the platform economy. As there has to date been only little research in this field, the project examines platform self-employment on the basis of a multi-level mixed-methods design and investigates (1) the extent and structure of social security of self-employed persons in the platform economy as well as the embeddedness of platform work in individual and family employment and security arrangements, (2) the subjective work and security orientations and preferences of those self-employed, and (3) social policy reform approaches and their fit with the objective security situations and subjective security preferences of the self-employed in the platform economy.
Research design
The research project is designed as a joint project between the Institute for Work and Qualification (IAQ) at the University of Duisburg-Essen and the Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) and is led by Dr. Fabian Hoose (IAQ) and Dr. Fabian Beckmann (RUB).
The project is based on three empirical modules:
(1) quantitative survey on the security orientations and security behaviour of platform self-employed persons
(2) qualitative in-depth interviews with self-employed in the platform economy on work and security orientations of this group as well as hybridity of employment biographies and arrangements
(3) Qualitative interviews with stakeholders from politics and administration, interest groups and platform operators on social policy reforms for regulating the social security of work and employment in the platform economy.
Lectures
Dr. Fabian Beckmann, Dr. Fabian Hoose, Serkan Topal, Sabrina Glanz: Regulation of Platform Work in the Making: Individual Protection Demands and Social Policy Challenges after the Adoption of the EU Directive. FIS Forum 2024, "Lost in Social Policy? Forschung für eine integrierte Sozialpolitik", GLS Campus Berlin, DIFIS – Deutsches Institut für Interdisziplinäre Sozialpolitikforschung, 6. – 8. November 2024, 06.11.2024 Weitere Informationen
Serkan Topal, Dr. Fabian Hoose, Dr. Fabian Beckmann, Sabrina Glanz (Ruhr University Bochum): De-institutionalisation of labour in the platform economy and its implications for regulation: a mixed-methods investigation of platform work in Germany. CRIMT 2024 CONFERENCE "Work on the Brink. Better Work for a Just and Sustainable Future", Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT), Montréal, Canada, 24.10.2024 Weitere Informationen
Dr. Fabian Beckmann, Dr. Fabian Hoose, Dr. Sophie Rosenbohm: Zwischen Plattformabhängigkeit und Marktgestaltung. Erwerbsstrategien selbstständiger Content Creator*innen auf Social Media-Plattformen. Tagung "Digital(isiert)e Wirtschaft". Soziologische Perspektiven auf die Digitalisierung von Märkten, Organisationen, Arbeit und Gütern. Universität Trier, Lehrstuhl für Wirtschaftssoziologie, 16. – 18. Oktober 2024, 17.10.2024 Weitere Informationen
Dr. Fabian Beckmann, Dr. Fabian Hoose, Serkan Topal, Sabrina Glanz: Precarious platform work, precarious platform workers? A multi-level approach towards economic precariousness among platform workers in Germany. Konferenz des European Networks for Social Policy Analysis (ESPAnet) unter dem Titel "Public values of the welfare state to manage sustainable welfare and wellbeing", 28. − 30. August 2024, Tampere, 29.08.2024 Weitere Informationen
Dr. Fabian Hoose, Dr. Sophie Rosenbohm, Dr. Fabian Beckmann: Zwischen Marktabhängigkeit und Marktgestaltung. Erwerbsstrategien selbstständiger Content Creator*innen auf Social Media-Plattformen. Online-Konferenz "Selbstständige Arbeit in der Gegenwartsgesellschaft". Autor*innenkonferenz zu einem Sonderband der Sozialen Welt, Hg. A. Manske, K. Mojescik, I. Stamm; AK Selbstständige Arbeit der AIS-Sektion Arbeits- und Industriesoziologie, 07.03.2024
Dr. Fabian Hoose, Dr. Fabian Beckmann: Solidarität in atomisierten Arbeitsformen. Empirische Erkenntnisse zu Interessenlagen von (solo-)selbstständigen Plattformarbeitenden. "Solidarität und Zusammenhalt in der Arbeitswelt. Aktuelle Herausforderungen und Perspektiven", Herbsttagung der Sektion Arbeits- und Industriesoziologie in Kooperation mit dem Forschungsinstitut Gesellschaftlicher Zusammenhalt (FGZ) – Standort Göttingen; online, 30.11.2023 Weitere Informationen
Dr. Fabian Hoose, Serkan Topal: Geteilte Interessen bei individualisierter Arbeit in der Plattformökonomie? Empirische Befunde zur objektiven Erwerbssituation und zu den subjektiven Präferenzen von Plattformselbstständigen an Arbeit und Mitbestimmung. 6. Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für sozioökonomische Bildung und Wissenschaft an der Universität Bielefeld, 05.10.2023 Weitere Informationen
Dr. Fabian Hoose, Serkan Topal, Dr. Fabian Beckmann, Lara Obereiner (Ruhr-Universität Bochum): Attraktive Regulierungsabstinenz? Eine explorative Untersuchung der sozialen Sicherung von Plattformselbstständigen. FIS-Forum 2023 - Sozialpolitik für die nächste(n) Generation(en), GLS Campus in Berlin, veranstaltet vom Deutschen Institut für Interdisziplinäre Sozialpolitikforschung (DIFIS), 21.09.2023 Weitere Informationen
Dr. Fabian Hoose, Serkan Topal, Dr. Fabian Beckmann: Die soziale Sicherung von Plattformselbstständigen: Problemhintergrund, empirische Befunde und sozialpolitische Implikationen. Workshop „Soziale Sicherung von Plattformarbeit: Diagnosen, Herausforderungen und Handlungsbedarfe“; digitale Veranstaltung, Institut Arbeit und Qualifikation zusammen mit der Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 16.06.2023
Dr. Fabian Hoose, Dr. Fabian Beckmann: Individualising risks. The impact of platforms on the social security of solo self-employed workers in Germany. Conference: Disrupting Technology. Contextualising continuity and change in technology, work and employment, Prato (Italy), Centre for Employment Relations, Innovation and Change (CERIC), Leeds University Business School & Monash Business School, 13.06.2023 Weitere Informationen
Dr. Fabian Hoose, Dr. Fabian Beckmann: Deinstitutionalization of work and social security in the platform economy: Causes, drivers, and implications for regulatory policies. FIS-Forum mit Social Policy Biennale 2022, Bremen, 5.-7. Oktober 2022, 07.10.2022 Weitere Informationen
Dr. Fabian Hoose, Dr. Fabian Beckmann: The de-institutionalization of social security and the platform economy: insights from a conservative welfare regime. ESPAnet 2022 Vienna Conference, 12 - 16 September 2022, 15.09.2022 Weitere Informationen
Project data
Term of the project:
01.12.2021 - 30.11.2024
Reseach department:
Working-Time and Work Organisation
Project management:
Dr. Fabian Hoose
Project team:
Serkan Topal
Funding:
Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales (BMAS)
