Our monthly DiPLab seminar will welcome Sarrah Kassem (Universität Tübingen), for a session entitled Work and Alienation in the Platform Economy – Amazon and the Power of Organization
The seminar will be held on Wed. 28 June 2023, at 3:30 PM CET, Room 1.1., Institut des Systèmes Complexes – Paris Île de France (ISC-PIF), 113 Rue Nationale, 75013 Paris (Métro 6 Nationale). A live stream will be available on Big Blue Button. To register, click on the button below and fill out the form. Let us know if you’re coming in person or remotely. The seminar is free to attend.
Work and Alienation in the Platform Economy – Amazon and the Power of Organization
Once hidden behind the veils of entrepreneurship, it is now clear that platforms are reshaping the world of work, and Amazon has been a forerunner in setting the trend. In this talk, Sarrah Kassem will be presenting her newly published book which examines two key and contrasting Amazon platforms that differ in how they organize workers: its e-commerce platform and digital labor platform (Mechanical Turk). With access to the people who are working at the heart of these platforms, it explores how different working conditions alienate workers, and how, despite these conditions, workers organize within their political-economic contexts to express their agency in traditional and alternative ways.
Sarrah Kassem is Lecturer and Research Associate in the field of Political Economy at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Tübingen. Her current research interests center around workers, working conditions, different forms of labor organization and the intersectional dimensions of the labor movement. She is the author of the book Work and Alienation in the Platform Economy Amazon and the Power of Organization (Bristol University Press).
