1,721,022 research outputs found
Disrupting the Neoliberal University in South Africa. The #FeesMustFall Movement in 2015
No full textThis article analyses the 2015 student mobilizations in South Africa (SA), which arose in opposition to a 10% hike in tuition fees planned for 2016 at the University of Witwatersrand (WITS) and spurred a massive student reaction across all the universities of the country. After only 10 days of mobilization, the protest, also known as #FeesMustFall by virtue of the most popular Twitter hashtag associated with it, succeeded in halting the hike. How and why did the protesters win? To answer this question, this study combined various qualitative methods of analysis. The author carried out in-depth interviews with all the relevant actors involved in the issue, and analysed documents relating to the movement elaborated by the students in the year of the protest (2015), as well as the main policy documents on higher education in post-apartheid South Africa (1994–2016) released by the government. The author argues that massive and disruptive student protests play a crucial role in ‘young’ democracies, as is the case of today’s South Africa, in which higher education is still considered an important societal issue, and university-level students a legitimate political actor. Where students are perceived as a legitimate element of the political system, it is more likely for them to have an impact on society
‘Misbehaving for Deliveroo. How couriers’ digital manipulation boosts the platform’s business’
Full text linkWorkplace misbehaviour has always been troublesome for employers. Workers have often exhibited conducts, such as absenteeism, pilferage, soldiering, sabotage and vandalism, that are foreign to companies’ norms and detrimental to their profits. Hence, various managerial theories have been developed over time with the aim of eliminating them. However, misbehaviour is still observed in the contemporary workplace. This study shows that, in platform work, where workers are controlled remotely by algorithms, platforms no longer seek to eliminate it, but even encourage its proliferation. Notably, it is argued that algorithmic control stirs the generation of specific forms of misbehaviour that are consistent with companies’ interests. Taking Deliveroo in Ireland and Italy as a case study, the paper illustrates how four types of manipulation of the platform’s digital infrastructure performed by couriers (i.e. the utilization of multiple Deliveroo accounts, the utilization of bots, the rental of other people’s accounts, the tricking of Deliveroo’s accounts system) are central to the expansion of its network effects. Building on labour process theory, these acts are referred to as ‘compliant misbehaviour’ – encompassing a set of worker misconducts that violate company-specific norms, but whose effects are fully beneficial to platforms’ economic interests. To develop the compliant misbehaviour concept, the author has carried out qualitative research fieldwork (indepth interviews, daily observation of couriers’ activities, document analysis) in both Ireland and Italy between 2022 and 2023. The theoretical elaboration of this concept is the main contribution of the paper
Resisting algorithmic control: Understanding the rise and variety of platform worker mobilisations
No full textAlgorithms are seen as effective for managing workers. Literature focuses mainly on the functioning and impact of algorithmic control on workers' experiences and conditions. The ways in which platform workers have organised collectively to regain control have received far less scholarly attention. This paper addresses this gap by making sense of the mobilisation dynamics of two platform-work categories: crowdwork (Amazon Mechanical Turk) and work on-demand (food-delivery couriers). These are salient mobilisation cases, as these workers have resisted algorithmic control by adopting specific organising modes, action repertoires and collective solidarities. By analysing a combination of extant literature and policy reports concerning each category of mobilisation forms at a global level over 5 years, the study elucidates why and how these workers were able to act without the involvement of traditional trade unions by showing that specific supportive communities and political activism traditions were crucial in the rise and variety of mobilisation
The Contentious Politics of Higher Education. Struggles and Power Relations within English and Italian Universities
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