CfP: The gig economy and platform workers in the Middle East and North Africa

Call for papers, deadline 30 March 2023

WORKSHOP 

The University of Liverpool, 1-2 June 2023

 

 

This interdisciplinary workshop investigates how the gig economy has transformed labour relations in the Middle East and North Africa. It focuses on the challenges and opportunities that digital platforms offer to labour markets in the region while precarity and informality jeopardise workers. 

 

The workshop calls for papers that broaden the analysis of the so-called “gig economy” beyond a mere economic lens, by bringing together multi-disciplinary insights and approaches from politics, sociology, political economy, digital anthropology, and development studies.

 

Topics of interest may include:

 

1. Governing digital markets: laws and regulations on “gig labour”

2. Artificial intelligence and surveillance over gig workers

3. Gig workers’ struggles and trade unions 

4. Feminist perspectives on platform labour 

5. Migrant workers and the gig economy

 

 

Proposals from PhD candidates and Early Career Researchers are especially encouraged. 

 

In order to foster inclusivity and allow access to scholars from the MENA region and local academic institutions, the workshop will be hybrid.

 

 Limited financial support is available for PhDs and ECRs travelling from the UK.

 

Please submit an abstracts (300 words) and a short bio (50 words) by March 30, 2023

 

The workshop is organised by dr. Stella MorganaBritish Academy Post-doctoral Fellow

Email contact for submissions and inquiriess.morgana@liverpool.ac.uk