Abstract
Using the internet as infrastructure for conducting business, Amazon can be considered a giant of the platform economy (PE). Sarrah Kassem’s Work and Alienation in the Platform Economy is about individuals who work for Amazon. What work do they do, and how do these workers and self-employed contractors respond to the firm’s requirements? Prioritizing workers’ well-being, Kassem explores the sources of power and tactics used by workers and contractors to protect their interests. Kassem’s approach is comparative: She conducts two case studies, one focusing on Amazon warehouse workers and the other on contractors hired by "requesters" to complete specific tasks using Mechanical Turk (MT) internet software. This comparison is motivated by the distinction between platform characteristics (location vs. web-based) and nature of work (traditional vs. gig and pay by time vs. pay by output). Warehouse workers are employed at a traditional workplace on a time-wage, while MT contractors are web-based, hired on a gig (individual task) basis, and paid by the piece (pp. 3–5). Work in both settings is relatively low skilled, facilitating storage and delivery of consumer products (warehouse work) and completion of administrative and data processing tasks (MT work). These characteristics raise questions about case selection and generalizing to the PE, a point I return to later.
Case study and broader secondary data are analyzed using theory that speaks to the twin themes of alienation (Chapter 2) and power (Chapter 3). The fourfold Marxian concept of alienation—alienation from labor activity, product, species being, and people—is clearly explained, emphasizing the interaction of these elements and their origin in early capitalism. Workers’ strategic responses to alienation depend on available power resources that assume four related forms: structural, associational, institutional, and societal, which together constitute the author’s Power Resources Approach. Integrating alienation and power in an explanatory framework is commendable but raises difficult, unanswered questions. These relate mainly to interactions. How do the forms of alienation interact with one another and with what consequences? A similar question can be asked about the four forms of power. And then there is the broader issue: How do alienation and power interact to create worker agency? Kassem refers to class consciousness as the bridge, but this concept receives little theoretical attention or empirical analysis.
Kassem usefully situates her case studies in the historical context of PE’s three generations of development and in relation to Amazon’s particular historical trajectory. In the 1990s, the internet spread rapidly, inaugurating the e-commerce revolution and the dot-com bubble. In this period Amazon seriously challenged traditional book sellers in the United States and globally, extending into sales of other items, which increased its warehouse workforce. The company was growing quickly but did not realize a profit until late 2001 (p. 56). By 2005, a stronger internet facilitated new interactive, multimedia applications and data commodification. Labor outsourcing grew significantly with the implementation of web-based labor market programs. Digital pioneers included MTurk and Amazon Web Services, business applications that match buyers and sellers of lower- and higher-skilled work assignments, respectively (p. 59). Around 2008, a third-generation PE emerged. This variant was based on a more robust internet infrastructure and cloud computing, which enabled location and web-based gig workers to generate revenue in accommodation (Airbnb), transport (Uber), and food transportation (Deliveroo). Meanwhile, Amazon’s revenue and workforce expanded exponentially. By 2019, Amazon employed 800,000 full- and part-time workers, a 33-fold increase on its 2009 figure, rising to 1.6 million by 2021 (pp. 62–63).
Work and Alienation in the Platform Economy’s empirical core is contained in four chapters that use the perspectives of alienation and power to frame the analysis of Amazon warehouse workers (Chapters 6 and 7) and MTurk contractors (Chapters 8 and 9), respectively. A limitation is that data and analytical techniques are not clearly explained. Warehouse work data were collected from informal interviews of “at least a dozen warehouse workers” (p. ix) coupled with data from an unspecified number of union (ver.di and UNI Global union) meetings in Germany. A survey of approximately 50 MTurk contractors (no details given) and limited participant observation provided information on MTurk contractors (p. ix). Subsequent analysis is supported by selective use of this primary data complemented by secondary sources. Warehouse work and its control by management receive detailed systematic examination according to the four forms of alienation noted earlier. However, we learn little about workers’ perceptions and feelings about their work. Kassem argues that despite low marketplace power, warehouse workers possess other kinds of power, which she skillfully analyzes. Accordingly, these workers mount occasional collective challenges to management, including strikes and union campaigns in the United States and Europe (pp. 92–98). Kassem admirably highlights how management tactics and variations in national institutional contexts influence such struggles.
Gigging on MTurk contrasts with warehouse work. Alienation is heightened by working on virtual objects (text and images) according to a “negotiated” process for which contractors compete transnationally for assignments paid on a piecework basis. Despite work precarity, contractors appreciate MTurk’s flexibility, which gives individuals some control over their work schedules and the labor process (p. 114). Overall, MTurk work is viewed positively rather than negatively, a conclusion apparently drawn from the author’s survey data. Further analysis might have shown that particular demographics, task competence, and extent of dependence on MTurk as a primary source of income, explain this finding (p. 115). MTurk contractors are shown to have less power than their warehouse counterparts. This finding reflects their self-employed legal position, the absence of a shared physical workplace, and international labor competition. These attributes discourage overt opposition to management (p. 120). Nevertheless, MTurk contractors use online forums, such as Turkopticon, to review and comment on “requesters” and to provide mutual support (p. 127). Kassem suggests that the growing importance of gig work generally has increased the societal power of gig workers, including MTurk contractors. Journalists and academics have heightened social awareness of the inequalities inherent in Amazon’s business model, personified in the contrasts in wealth between CEO Jeff Bezos and Amazon workers. Relatedly, the EU and some governments are changing laws aimed at reclassifying gig workers as employees, restricting management control, and ensuring payment of minimum wages (p. 132).
Focusing on Amazon raises questions of similarities and differences in alienation and power between warehouse and gig workers and between workers across the PE more generally. Kassem’s intra-Amazon comparisons are penetrating and persuasive, but her wider analysis is too limited, concentrating mainly on practices used by Facebook, Google, and Uber analogous to those employed by Amazon (Chapters 10 and 11). Gig work is emphasized, although she acknowledges that higher-skilled work is important for generating profits, which brings us back to the question of case selection and generalizing to the PE. Arguably, a better option would have been to compare high-skilled knowledge workers and lower-skilled gig workers in Amazon. This strategy gives due weight to creativity and innovation and broadens our understanding of labor, especially if other leading PE companies are included in the analysis. Notwithstanding this observation and limitations noted earlier, Kassem has produced a thorough, theoretically informed synthesis of warehouse and gig work at Amazon. It is a study that merits close attention by academics and students interested in understanding the predicament and prospects of individuals engaged in lower-skilled work in the platform economy.