5 - Conclusions and implications: from wage economy to gig economy to automated (“no”) economy?

Summary

This book has sought to get behind the contemporary buzz and rhetoric around the use of the terms “gig”, “gig work” and “gig economy”. In so doing, we have attempted to provide some theoretical and empirical analysis of the gig work phenomenon, to assess critically some of the rhetorical claims made about gig work, and to develop a more objective stance on gig work by looking at more robust academic work exploring this, and related areas.

In Chapter 1 we examined origins of the term “gig” and contemporary definitions of the gig economy by looking closely at one of the most common environments in which we see the word used: the music business. We noted that key features of the music business were also very apparent in the gig economy. Chapter 2 anchored the concept of the gig economy to theoretical work on segmented labour markets and labour flexibility to illustrate that in many respects there is nothing new about the gig economy – that it could be seen as “old wine in a new bottle”. Chapter 3 operationalized the concept of gig work in various forms of contingent work – casual work, agency work, zero-hours contracts and dependent contractors – to shine a light on trends we appear to be seeing in the UK and other parts of the world: a (post-2008 economic crisis) resurgence in short-term and precarious work. Our analysis revealed that not only is gig work not new, but also that its growth was in some sense predictable. Chapter 4 then examined the regulatory framework as pertains to gig workers, and also aspects of their “lived experience”. Evident here was that labour law frameworks had struggled to keep abreast with developments in the gig economy, as their coverage was historically rooted to the premise that a worker has to be an employee to be covered by employment rights.

This final chapter offers a critique of the idea that the market is acting as a benevolent allocator of resources. The fundamental apologia typically offered in defence of the gig economy is that it is the result of the workings of the market and since the market is so often regarded as the summum bonum of human social achievement, the gig economy is a “win-win” development in labour relations.