Collegium Helveticum
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Fellow Project 2023–2024

Tracing the Evolution of Two Gig Platforms
A Comparative Analysis of Deliveroo and Upwork

This project, co-led with Niels Beerepoot (Associate Professor in Economic Geography, University of Amsterdam), examines the development of two platform companies since their inception in 2013, to better understand what factors explain both heterogeneity and convergence in their respective business trajectories. So far, scholarship on platform-mediated labor lacks historical analyses of platform development, particularly comparative and geographically sensitive approaches. By conducting a comparative analysis of the evolution of an online freelancing platform (Upwork) and a food delivery platform (Deliveroo), this project aims to offer new insights into the variegated business strategies, industry dynamics, regional path-dependencies, and institutional arrangements of what is too often treated as a monolithic β€œgig economy.”

Besides this project, Niels will work on a new book based on his Platform Labor research project. The manuscript is provisionally entitled The Platform Fix: Actually Existing Platformization in Post-Welfare Cities.