About this Research Topic
Algorithms have become an invisible part of everyone's life and they are now an important player when considering people's mundane consumption, working life, and even educational and work career choices. The use of digital tools at work and in social life, the monitoring power of algorithms, and the algorithmic management of business choices are currently radically transforming the ways we work, and the contents and processes of work in digital labor platforms, ‘traditional’ companies and public sector institutions.
Work has been one of the most central themes in sociology for centuries. Weber’s work on professions and bureaucracy, Marx’s writings on formation of social classes and stratification, Durkheim’s analysis of moral communities and Parson’s recognition of relationship between professions and social order have formed the corpus for theoretical foundation in the research of work in social sciences. The contemporary alignments of work and technology in society and economy call for new analyses and narratives.
This ambitious call for papers finds important to ask not only the empirically informed and attuned questions of how and through what types of processes do the fast developing platforms and algorithms transform the work and its organizing in societies, and what types of skills and capabilities are required in the new work with algorithms at platforms. In addition to empirical aspects, we also invite papers with wider scope that aims to gain theoretically laden understanding of platforms' role in shaping the new governance blueprints of modern society through technology. The call is open both for empirical and theoretical articles addressing the intersections of platforms, algorithms and modern work in contemporary society.
The scope of the call is open both for empirical and theoretical articles addressing the topics and intersections of platforms, algorithms and modern work in contemporary society.
Potential themes for this Research Topic include but are not limited to:
1. work and labor platforms in society;
2. comparative aspects of platformization;
3. governance and power in platforms;
4. platformization in society.
Work has been one of the most central themes in sociology for centuries. Weber’s work on professions and bureaucracy, Marx’s writings on formation of social classes and stratification, Durkheim’s analysis of moral communities and Parson’s recognition of relationship between professions and social order have formed the corpus for theoretical foundation in the research of work in social sciences. The contemporary alignments of work and technology in society and economy call for new analyses and narratives.
This ambitious call for papers finds important to ask not only the empirically informed and attuned questions of how and through what types of processes do the fast developing platforms and algorithms transform the work and its organizing in societies, and what types of skills and capabilities are required in the new work with algorithms at platforms. In addition to empirical aspects, we also invite papers with wider scope that aims to gain theoretically laden understanding of platforms' role in shaping the new governance blueprints of modern society through technology. The call is open both for empirical and theoretical articles addressing the intersections of platforms, algorithms and modern work in contemporary society.
The scope of the call is open both for empirical and theoretical articles addressing the topics and intersections of platforms, algorithms and modern work in contemporary society.
Potential themes for this Research Topic include but are not limited to:
1. work and labor platforms in society;
2. comparative aspects of platformization;
3. governance and power in platforms;
4. platformization in society.
Keywords: platform society, platform economy, digitalization, skills, work, algorithmic decision making, algorithms, qualification
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
