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19 - Pursuing Democratic Depth in an Age of Multinational Power and Soft Labor Law

The Case of Platform Worker Protests

from Part V - Labor and Democracy Sectoral Case Studies: Platform Workers, Higher Education, and the Care Industry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2022

By
Julia López López
Edited by
Angela B. Cornell  and
Mark Barenberg
Angela B. Cornell
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Mark Barenberg
Affiliation:
Columbia University, New York
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Summary

In recent decades the contribution of collective labor law as a core element of social democracy has been questioned. The existing institutional pathways that deepen democracy have eroded, for labor organizations and the workers represented by them. Unions and workers have reoriented their strategies in order to recover spaces of participation and influence – deeply shaping democratic outcomes through new types of mobilization. The case of platform workers’ mobilization is an emblematic example of local strategies in the face of global problems. New types of mobilization by new actors have reaffirmed labor’s ability to foster democracy’s depth despite the erosion of older institutional channels supportive of that same end.

Keywords

democracylaborprotestplatform workerssoft lawhard law
Type
Chapter
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The Cambridge Handbook of Labor and Democracy , pp. 307 - 317
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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