The Politics of Work Transfer Across Paid-Unpaid Work in Disabled Gig Economy Workers' Lives

• In Event: 40825 - Disability, Work and Economies of Difference

Abstract

This presentation moves beyond dyadic distinctions between ‘paid’ and ‘unpaid’ work and between ‘exploitation’ and ‘oppression’ (as the sole realms of paid and unpaid work, respectively). Instead, following Feminist scholars Munro (2022), Glazer (1984), and Glucksmann (1990), I consider both waged and unwaged work as integral to the reproduction of capitalist social relations. With insights from my research project titled ‘The Politics of Disablement and Precarious Work’, I examine how disabled gig economy workers traverse a variety of spheres of activity across their everyday lives across the paid-unpaid work divide. Thus, I briefly discuss the six spheres of (paid and unpaid) activity identified through twenty-seven interviews with, and twelve diaries produced by twenty-seven disabled gig economy workers who participated in this project. In relation to unpaid work, I highlight care and self-care, working for the state (when attending Job Coach meetings or being assessed for disability-related eligibility for social security), reacting to/addressing disability-related prejudice(micro-aggressions) on a daily basis, organising and volunteering, and undertaking activities conducive to rest. All these activities, I contend, are related to disabling capitalist social relations by either reproducing, contesting, or prefiguring beyond capitalism. With the persistence of austerity measures in the UK, the work previously undertaken through public services has been increasingly transferred onto households. To understand the dynamics between these spheres of activity, I adopt Nona Glazer’s ‘work transfer’ thesis and propose the concept of ‘work transfer from below’ as an analytical tool for mobilising collective social change against top-down transfers ‘from above’.

Author

• Ioana Cerasella Chis, University of Birmingham