Unexceptional neoliberalism: enterprise and informality in the gig economy of India

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dc.citation.doi10539-33457
dc.contributor.authorNair, Gayatri
dc.contributor.authorDivyadarshi, Jennifer
dc.date.accessioned2022-11-15T12:03:44Z
dc.date.availableAugust 2022
dc.date.issued2022-11-15
dc.departmentSouthern Centre for Inequality Studies (SCIS)
dc.description.abstractThis paper examines the conditions of work in the platform economy across India, which has witnessed a significant expansion in the number of gig workers joining platform enterprises. The precarity underscoring work in the gig economy is now widely acknowledged, but what does this entail for workers in India and the global South who have typically been a part of the informal economy? The paper explores whether the absence of labour regulation and social security in gig work marks it as an extension of informal work. Based on interviews with gig workers and rooted in their experiences of work that remains unregulated, we consider whether gig work is an instance of “unexceptional neoliberalism” as it extends informality to new sectors. The paper unpacks the impact of the neoliberal state’s agenda of promoting enterprise on gig workers who are now subject to algorithmic controls of platforms, alongside “traditional” constraints of caste, class and gender, even as they are considered by the State and digital platforms to be autonomous entrepreneurial subjects.
dc.description.librarianSeipati Mokhema
dc.description.sponsorshipSouthern Centre For Inequality Studies (SCIS)
dc.description.sponsorshipUniversity of the Witwatersrand
dc.facultyFaculty of Commerce, Law and Management
dc.identifier.citationNair, G. and Divyadarshi, J. 2022. Unexceptional neoliberalism: enterprise and informality in the gig economy of India. Future of Work(ers) SCIS Working Paper Number 35, Southern Centre for Inequality Studies, University Of The Witwatersrand.
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/33457
dc.identifier.urihttps://www.doi.org/110.54223/uniwitwatersrand-10539-33459
dc.language.isoen
dc.orcid.id0000-0002-6987-9995
dc.orcid.id0000-0002-2239-8748
dc.publisherSouthern Centre for Inequality Studies (SCIS)
dc.publisherUniversity of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
dc.relation.ispartofseries35
dc.rights©2022 Southern Centre for Inequality Studies (SCIS)
dc.schoolSouthern Centre for Inequality Studies (SCIS)
dc.subjectDigital Labour Platforms
dc.subjectInequality
dc.subjectGig Economy
dc.subjectIndia
dc.subjectCaste
dc.subjectSurveillance
dc.subjectInformality
dc.subjectNeoliberalism
dc.subjectApp Based Work
dc.subjectDigital Platform
dc.subjectGig Workers
dc.titleUnexceptional neoliberalism: enterprise and informality in the gig economy of India
dc.typeWorking Paper
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