Platforms today are reorganizing digital work and distributing it across the globe. Every day millions of digital homeworkers around the world log onto so-called crowdwork platforms and categorize images, sort data, or test software. The first research area investigates crowdwork in the context of an increasingly globalized geography of digital labour, with a focus on new forms of “virtual” mobility and the reorganization of social reproduction.
The “last mile” of delivery to the customer has become a major focus of logistics today. The rise of platforms like Amazon and Deliveroo not only entails new consumption habits, but also changes the organization and composition of work on the last mile. The second research area studies this change with a particular focus on new forms of mobility and migration in the context of flexibilized platform work.
Digital technologies are reconfiguring mobility today. Linked to the change of labour under digital conditions, new forms and practices of digital, temporary, and flexible mobility emerge that challenge our conception of migration. The third research area explores the theoretical, conceptual, and socio-political implications of migration under digital conditions.
