Urban Platform Economies

The emergence of digital labour platforms is changing people`s everyday lives in cities and influencing already existing patterns of social inequalities. Platforms such as Care.com, Mjam or Tophelp reorganise patterns of work, services and consumption and thus the socio-spatial structures of urban spaces. While previous research has primarily focused on crowdwork (e.g. Amazon MTurk), ride hailing (e.g. Uber) and short term rentals (e.g. Airbnb), TICS analyses the transformation of care services. Care services include the cleaning of private households, the care of children and seniors in the home environment, and the delivery of ready-made meals. Using feminist geographies as a theoretical framework, the project investigates the platforms influences on the spatial and social reorganisation of urban societies. It applies a qualitative methodology that combines narrative interviews with mobile digital ethnography. The three European cities of Vienna, Hamburg and Zurich serve as empirical examples.