Micra Work - A Different Kind of Work in the Industrious Economy

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Many companies and er, the will bank and many of the sort of impact sourcing organizations make claims to kind of pull people out of unemployment in the informal economy. As i early mentioned, its motto is, give work, not aid. The majority of these es, coming from indian sub continent, from east asia, latin america, have few formal protections. Will perform multiple services for multiple contractors over the course of a single day, and will remain continually uncertain whether they'll find enough income that day to survive.

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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