Decoding algorithmic management

This participatory science research will enhance the calculative power of workers  within digital labour platforms, enabling them to make informed decisions about their working conditions and uphold their labour rights with data-driven evidence. At the intersection of sociology of work, data science, and public policy, researchers will collaborate with workers to reclaim their data, which is currently controlled by platforms, using different regulatory frameworks. We will analyse the data with workers, local organisations and trade unions to understand platforms’ functioning and accurately calculate working hours and revenues. This analysis will be part of a comparative study between two countries in the Global South—Chile and Venezuela—and two in the Global North—Spain and Switzerland, to provide insights into digital labor across different economic contexts. 

Sectors concerned: Food-delivery, cleaning and care.

#CalculativePower #GigEconomy #LabourRights #DecentWork #DigitalPlatforms #ParticipatoryScience #Research

Key Goals:

• Analyse platform workers’ data to understand the impact of algorithmic management on wages and working hours
• Compare how different regulatory frameworks influence worker-platform power dynamics
• Create tools for workers to track their working time and recover their data

Leading Project Team in Switzerland:

• Dr. Jessica Pidoux (Principal researcher and Project coordinator PersonalData.IO, University of Neuchâtel)
• Researcher and co-coordinator Prof. Nuria Sánchez (University of Neuchâtel)
• Data scientist Sofia Kypriaou (PersonalData.IO)

• Technical Partner:
  
  • Dr. Paul-Olivier Dehaye (Hestia.ai)

International Researchers:

Latin America

• • Prof. Francisca Gutiérrez (University Austral de Chile, MNEW-COES)
  • Dr. Luciana Zorzoli (Essex University, England)

Spain

• • Prof. Dr. Óscar Molina (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
  • Prof. Anna Ginès (esade, Rafel Lull University)
  • Prof. Raquel Serrano Olivares (University of Barcelona)

Duration: January 2025-November 2026