Amazon Mechanical Turk and the commodification of labour

Abstract

Crowd employment platforms enable firms to source labour and expertise by leveraging Internet technology. Rather than offshoring jobs to low‐cost geographies, functions once performed by internal employees can be outsourced to an undefined pool of digital labour using a virtual network. This enables firms to shift costs and offload risk as they access a flexible, scalable workforce that sits outside the traditional boundaries of labour laws and regulations. The micro‐tasks of ‘clickwork’ are tedious, repetitive and poorly paid, with remuneration often well below minimum wage. This article will present an analysis of one of the most popular crowdsourcing sites—Mechanical Turk—to illuminate how Amazon's platform enables an array of companies to access digital labour at low cost and without any of the associated social protection or moral obligation.

An examination of the equivalency of self-report measures obtained from crowdsourced versus undergraduate student samples

“…In the present study, we elected to use a fairly common rate for short MTurk tasks: a payment of US$0.10. 7 To maintain consistency across the two platforms, we offered an equivalent US$0.10 payment for our 7 Our payment rate was consistent with those in a number of prior studies (e.g., Bergvall-Kåreborn & Howcroft, 2014;Buhrmester et al, 2011;Goodman et al, 2012;Horton et al, 2011;Mason & Suri, 2012;Mason & Watts, 2009;Paolacci et al, 2010). Although such payments appear to be effective, some have begun to ask whether such wages are ethically appropriate (Irani & Silberman, 2013).…”

A Comparison of Three Online Recruitment Strategies for Engaging Parents

“…Most workers in both India and the United States participate to earn money (Horton et al, 2011); one study found that money was important for 61.4% of participants (Paolacci, Chandler, & Ipeirotis, 2010). Workers in India are also motivated by wanting to develop new skills, and workers in the United States have indicated that they perform HITs for fun and entertainment (Horton et al, 2011; Paolacci et al, 2010). More than half of both Indian and United States workers said that performing HITs on MTurk was a fruitful way to spend their free time (Ipeirotis, 2010; Paolacci et al, 2010).…”

Mellomledd i oppdragsmarkedet

“…Det er også tilfeller hvor konsulenten er selvstendig naeringsdrivende og benytter mellomleddet som en formidler og kontraktspartner (Gabrielsen & Mostervik 2006). I forbindelse med delings-eller formidingsøkonomien rettes oppmerksomheten mot teknologisk basert formidling av arbeidskraft og kompetanse (Bergwall-Kåreborn & Howcroft, 2014;de Stefano 2016;Eurofund 2015). De sentrale aktørene og relasjonene er her et mellomledd i form av en digital plattform, som bidrar til å kople sammen komplementaere aktører; som kan betraktes som tilbyder og etterspørrer .…”

“…Potensialet for de nye plattformene er knyttet til reduserte søkekost-nader for tilbyder og etterspørrer av arbeidskraft, økt informasjon om muligheter, reduserte administrasjonskostnader og mulighet for begge parter til å få tilgang til vurderinger av tidligere utførte oppdrag. På denne måten kan aktører med digitale plattformer åpne opp for mer eksternalisering av arbeid gjennom «mini-outsourcing» av oppgaver til enkeltpersoner med kompetanse og arbeidskraft (De Stefano 2016;Bergwall-Kåreborn & Howcroft 2014;Eurofund 2015).…”