Does economic upgrading lead to social upgrading in contact centers? Evidence from South Africa

Anwar, Mohammad Amir; Graham, Mark

doi:10.1080/19376812.2019.1589730

Cited by 17 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Much of the gig work is characterized by an oversupply of labour, particularly on Upwork (Graham and Anwar, 2019b). This has the potential to affect two key forms of bargaining power, i.e.…”

Section: Attack On Autonomy and Bargaining Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

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Between a rock and a hard place: Freedom, flexibility, precarity and vulnerability in the gig economy in Africa

Anwar

Graham

2020

Competition & Change

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232

167

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The world of work is changing. Communications technologies and digital platforms have enabled some types of work to be delivered from anywhere in the world by anyone with a computer and an internet connection. This digitally-mediated work brings jobs to parts of the world traditionally characterized by low incomes and high unemployment rates. As such, it has been touted by governments, third-sector organizations, and the private sector as a novel strategy of economic development. Drawing on a four-year study with 65 workers in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and Uganda, we examine the development implications of the gig economy on labour in Africa. We offer four analytical development dimensions through which platform-based remote work impacts the lives and livelihoods of African workers, i.e. freedom, flexibility, precarity and vulnerablity. We argue that these dimensions should be understood in a continuum to better explain the working conditions and lives of workers in the gig economy.

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Section: Attack On Autonomy and Bargaining Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 7 This side of our empirical research comes from a different theme of our ongoing research on information economy in Africa (Anwar and Graham, 2019b; Graham et al., 2017). …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Between a rock and a hard place: Freedom, flexibility, precarity and vulnerability in the gig economy in Africa

Anwar

Graham

2020

Competition & Change

Self Cite

232

167

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“…In order to understand how the BCI operated in both countries, we also interviewed several supply chain actors, including garment factories, fabric mills, spinners and ginners in the four provinces/states investigated. relationship between economic upgrading and environmental upgrading (Anwar and Graham, 2019;De Marchi et al, 2019). 7 According to Coe and Yeung (2015: 4-7), at least three important drivers in the capitalist world economy have influenced the organization of GVCs in recent decades.…”

Section: Gvcs Regulatory Intermediaries and Upscaling Of Sustainability Standardsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, GVC scholars have explored the linkages between economic upgrading of suppliers and the social upgrading of workers to improve labour conditions at the base of these chains (Barrientos et al., 2016; Rossi, 2019). The tentative conclusion appears to be that there is no automatic relationship between economic and social upgrading in GVCs, and that this also holds if we look at the relationship between economic upgrading and environmental upgrading (Anwar and Graham, 2019; De Marchi et al., 2019).…”

Section: Gvcs Regulatory Intermediaries and Upscaling Of Sustainability Standardsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global Value Chains and Intermediaries in Multi‐stakeholder Initiatives in Pakistan and India

Lund‐Thomsen¹,

Riisgaard²,

Singh³

et al. 2021

Development and Change

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In this article, we analyse the role of regulatory intermediaries of the Better Cotton Initiative, a multi-stakeholder initiative (MSI) in the global cotton value chain, with a regional focus on India and Pakistan. We conceptualize how the key roles of regulatory intermediaries -translating and verifying compliance with abstract rules in ways that make these rules practical and intelligible for target audiences (in this case, cotton farmers) -may be compromised by global value chain pressures and contradictory MSI requirements, thereby undermining the aim of mainstreaming sustainability standard systems. In other words, we theorize how MSIs can become subject to regulatory capture, serving the needs of global brands (for rapid upscaling, price minimization and verification) and sustainability standard bodies (contradictory demands for capacity building and compliance) at the expense of the intended beneficiaries -farmers at the base of global value chains. Based on an empirical analysis of the Better Cotton Initiative's implementing partners in Pakistan and India, we conclude that such weaknesses in standard implementation are likely to translate into poorer field-level results in terms of ensuring the large-scale, global mainstreaming of more sustainable commodity production sought by MSI practitioners.1. In general, this trend has been institutionalized through retailer and brand participation in multi-stakeholder initiatives which can be defined as 'voluntary rule-systems for sustainability that are governed by stakeholders who jointly cross the profit/non-profit and state/non-state boundaries' (de Bakker et al., 2019: 346). It is possible to distinguish

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“…According to Galperin and Greppi (2017), information frictions in traditional labour markets are exacerbated on digital platforms, resulting in discrimination based on country of origin: migrant workers are less likely to obtain contracts. In other countries of the Global South, workers have experienced the negative effects of these platforms (Anwar & Graham, 2019).…”

Section: Migrants Precariousness and The Gig Economymentioning

confidence: 99%

Taming Platform Capitalism: Struggles From the Global South Meet Struggles From the Global North

Arriagada

Graham²,

Huws

et al. 2020

SPIR

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This panel brings together scholars whose work seeks to tame platform capitalism understanding how the lives of platform workers are affected by digital platforms. Research on platform labor has been mostly done in the global north, as well as in relation to global platforms like Uber or Amazon (Rosenblat 2019; Scholz 2016). Thus, the panelists, moreover, explore how the lives of platform workers can be improved within the global platform economy by analyzing workers’ subjectivities in relation to platforms and the impact of technologies in job quality. To achieve this, this panel brings together scholars from global north and south countries that will map the complexities and subjectivities of platform workers in order to tame platform capitalism. We present a set of articles that address: (1) regulatory resistance that clarifies and redefines the rules that platforms need to abide by; (2) bottom-up resistance of platform workers who seek to organize, subvert, and build alternatives; (3) the ways that action research can support either of those initiatives to ultimately tame some of the worst excesses of platform capitalism.

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Does economic upgrading lead to social upgrading in contact centers? Evidence from South Africa

Abstract: This paper will be published in a forthcoming special issue on Geographies of Southern Africa in African Geographical Review.

Cited by 17 publications

References 49 publications

Between a rock and a hard place: Freedom, flexibility, precarity and vulnerability in the gig economy in Africa

Between a rock and a hard place: Freedom, flexibility, precarity and vulnerability in the gig economy in Africa

Global Value Chains and Intermediaries in Multi‐stakeholder Initiatives in Pakistan and India

Taming Platform Capitalism: Struggles From the Global South Meet Struggles From the Global North

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