IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/indres/v62y2023i1p60-77.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Informalization in gig food delivery in the UK: The case of hyper‐flexible and precarious work

Author

Listed:
  • Pedro Mendonça
  • Nadia K. Kougiannou
  • Ian Clark

Abstract

This article examines the process of informalization of work in platform food delivery work in the UK. Drawing on qualitative data, this article provides new analytical insight into what drives individual formal couriers to both supply and demand informalized sub‐contracted gig work to undocumented migrants, and how a platform company enables informal work practices through permissive HR practices and technology. In doing so, this article shows how platform companies are enablers of informal labor markets and contribute to the expansion of hyper‐precarious working conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Pedro Mendonça & Nadia K. Kougiannou & Ian Clark, 2023. "Informalization in gig food delivery in the UK: The case of hyper‐flexible and precarious work," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(1), pages 60-77, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:indres:v:62:y:2023:i:1:p:60-77
    DOI: 10.1111/irel.12320
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/irel.12320
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/irel.12320?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Saskia Sassen, 2009. "Cities Today: A New Frontier for Major Developments," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 626(1), pages 53-71, November.
    2. Nikolaus Hammer & Réka Plugor, 2019. "Disconnecting Labour? The Labour Process in the UK Fast Fashion Value Chain," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 33(6), pages 913-928, December.
    3. Gabriella Cioce & Ian Clark & James Hunter, 2022. "How does informalisation encourage or inhibit collective action by migrant workers? A comparative analysis of logistics warehouses in Italy and hand car washes in Britain," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 126-141, March.
    4. Ian Clark & Trevor Colling, 2018. "Work in Britain's Informal Economy: Learning from Road†Side Hand Car Washes," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 56(2), pages 320-341, June.
    5. Dubois, Anna & Gadde, Lars-Erik, 2002. "Systematic combining: an abductive approach to case research," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 55(7), pages 553-560, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cosmin Popan, 2024. "The fragile ‘art’ of multi-apping: Resilience and snapping in the gig economy," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 56(3), pages 802-815, May.
    2. Iveta Ķešāne & Maija Spuriņa, 2024. "Sociological Types of Precarity Among Gig Workers: Lived Experiences of Food Delivery Workers in Riga," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 12.
    3. Caleb Goods & Alex Veen & Tom Barratt & Brett Smith, 2024. "Power resources for disempowered workers? Re‐conceptualizing the power and potential of consumers in app‐based food delivery," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(2), pages 107-131, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gabriella Cioce & Ian Clark & James Hunter, 2022. "How does informalisation encourage or inhibit collective action by migrant workers? A comparative analysis of logistics warehouses in Italy and hand car washes in Britain," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 126-141, March.
    2. Ian Clark & Alan Collins & James Hunter & Richard Pickford & Jack Barratt & Huw Fearnall-Williams, 2023. "Persistently non-compliant employment practice in the informal economy: permissive visibility in a multiple regulator setting," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 47(3), pages 611-632.
    3. Pascal Dey & Chris Steyaert, 2016. "Rethinking the Space of Ethics in Social Entrepreneurship: Power, Subjectivity, and Practices of Freedom," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 133(4), pages 627-641, February.
    4. Saarijärvi, Hannu & Mitronen, Lasse & Yrjölä, Mika, 2014. "From selling to supporting – Leveraging mobile services in the context of food retailing," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 26-36.
    5. Zhang, Hongjuan & Young, Michael N. & Tan, Justin & Sun, Weizheng, 2018. "How Chinese companies deal with a legitimacy imbalance when acquiring firms from developed economies," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(5), pages 752-767.
    6. Anna Adamik & Michał Nowicki, 2019. "Pathologies and Paradoxes of Co-Creation: A Contribution to the Discussion about Corporate Social Responsibility in Building a Competitive Advantage in the Age of Industry 4.0," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-38, September.
    7. Caroline Ardelet & Nathalie Veg-Sala & Alain Goudey & Marie Haikel-Elsabeh, 2017. "Between fear and desire for smart products: toward an understanding of consumers ambivalence [Entre crainte et désir pour les objets connectés : comprendre l'ambivalence des consommateurs]," Post-Print hal-01570286, HAL.
    8. Guiette, Alain & Vandenbempt, Koen, 2017. "Change managerialism and micro-processes of sensemaking during change implementation," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 65-81.
    9. Andrzej Janowski & Anna Szczepańska-Przekota, 2022. "The Trait of Extraversion as an Energy-Based Determinant of Entrepreneur’s Success—The Case of Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-21, June.
    10. Menzies, Jane & Chavan, Meena & Jack, Robert & Scarparo, Simona & Chirico, Francesco, 2024. "Australian indigenous female entrepreneurs: The role of adversity quotient," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    11. Kazadi, Kande & Lievens, Annouk & Mahr, Dominik, 2016. "Stakeholder co-creation during the innovation process: Identifying capabilities for knowledge creation among multiple stakeholders," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 525-540.
    12. Suomi, Kati & Luonila, Mervi & Tähtinen, Jaana, 2020. "Ironic festival brand co-creation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 211-220.
    13. Kirsti Iivonen, 2018. "Defensive Responses to Strategic Sustainability Paradoxes: Have Your Coke and Drink It Too!," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(2), pages 309-327, March.
    14. Alaassar, Ahmad & Mention, Anne-Laure & Aas, Tor Helge, 2021. "Exploring a new incubation model for FinTechs: Regulatory sandboxes," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    15. Baran Grzegorz, 2020. "Social Innovation Living Labs as Platforms to Co-design Social Innovations," Journal of Intercultural Management, Sciendo, vol. 12(1), pages 36-57, March.
    16. Meyer, Camille, 2020. "The commons: A model for understanding collective action and entrepreneurship in communities," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(5).
    17. Christina Öberg, 2016. "How Innovation Impacts Artistic Creativity — Managing Innovation In The Advertising Sector," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 20(04), pages 1-23, May.
    18. Frans Prenkert, 2012. "Business Network Simulation: Combining Research Cases and Agent-Based Models in a Robust Methodology," International Journal of Business Administration, International Journal of Business Administration, Sciedu Press, vol. 3(6), pages 82-92, November.
    19. Gasparin, Isadora & Panina, Ekaterina & Becker, Larissa & Yrjölä, Mika & Jaakkola, Elina & Pizzutti, Cristiane, 2022. "Challenging the "integration imperative": A customer perspective on omnichannel journeys," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    20. Antonella La Rocca & Ivan Snehota, 2021. "Mobilizing suppliers when starting up a new business venture," Post-Print hal-03328945, HAL.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:indres:v:62:y:2023:i:1:p:60-77. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0019-8676 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.