Underpaid or Uberpaid? The Platformisation of the Domestic and Care Work

In recent years, many countries have witnessed a progressive commodification of domestic and care services. Service provision has become increasingly diversified, and the domestic and care sector has also been part of a general trend of progressive ‘platformisation’, as both local and multinational digital labour platforms (DLPs) have entered the market. Despite its growing prominence, the platformisation of domestic and care work has remained relatively under-researched. This symposium aims to provide a global perspective on the evolving landscape of platform-mediated domestic and care work, drawing on a range of theoretical and empirical perspectives. The papers in the symposium deepen the scholarly discussion by advancing the analysis in at least four key directions. First, they examine the diversification of digital labour platforms’ business models in the domestic and care sectors, assessing management practices and their impact on working conditions. Second, they explore the regulatory and welfare frameworks of different national contexts, considering how institutional structures and the neoliberal promise of flexible solutions to care crises influence the discourse on platform workers’ working conditions. The third and fourth dimensions take a more micro-level approach, focusing on workers’ lived experiences, perceptions and strategies for navigating digital labour platforms.