Not-Equal.tech

Partners

Future City Logistics

Project Lead

Ben Kirman, University of York

Co-investigators

Oliver Bates, Lancaster University

Project Type

Funded Project

In 2019, Britain’s gig economy doubled over three years accounting for 4.7 million workers. However, these digital platforms have created a precarious nature of employment with working people struggling to make ends meet. Switch-Gig explored how to centre the voices and experiences of gig workers in the re-design of gig economy platforms. The project team ran workshops for couriers discussing their experiences of technology.

Through speculative fiction, the groups came up with ideas to create a Switch Gig design booklet. The main themes were couriers’ role as “local heroes” and essential “key workers”; couriers as infrastructure; couriers’ livelihoods at the whim of opaque unknowable systems; couriers seizing power and working together to share knowledge; and couriers as deviants – obliged to appropriate and subvert the infrastructure of the city to make a living.

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These themes were discussed with industrial partners to understand their perspective and how it relates to their understanding of courier issues. The feedback demonstrated how the perspectives of technologists and couriers on the same issues can differ greatly. This pilot project will inform larger-scale projects to support the needs of, and address the issues faced by, gig-workers, both in the UK and abroad.