Micro Work Platforms in the Global South

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Micre work is not obviously well known in a lot of countries. What tends to happen is that it will become popular amongst a a few people, and then it will spread by word of mouth over watsap. So large numbers of f the venezuelan middle class ended up doing incredibly poorly paid work on these platforms. As it would amount to around about dollar an hour. More workers that arrived on the platforms looking for employment opportunities, the more these platforms could lower wages. And so it got to the point where actually lots of these workers just left the platforms because they presumably could make more money in the informal sector. Well, you know, these latonomous vehicle companies that have not

Paris Marx is joined by Phil Jones to discuss the hidden microworkers behind supposedly AI-powered automation from major tech companies, how it differs in the Global North and South, and what it means for how we think about the future.

Phil Jones is the author of Work Without the Worker: Labour in the Age of Platform Capitalism and a researcher at Autonomy. Follow Phil on Twitter at @philjones7771.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Phil wrote about digital piecework for The Guardian and had an excerpt about refugee labor in Rest of World.
Turkopticon helps workers on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk gain some information on the contractors offering tasks on the platform.
In 2020, Gizmodo did surveys to find out about workers’ experiences on Mechanical Turk. There were a lot of horror stories.
In 2014, workers on the platform sent emails to Jeff Bezos to ask for better conditions.

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