This collection presents an array of policy debates and implications emerging from virtual work. The authors cover a range of areas, including: conceptual debates, measuring virtual work; discourses and levels of policy intervention; the role of the sharing and collaborative economy; and resultant challenges for organized labour, law and regulation.

The authors of the chapters analyse the ways in which processes of digitalization leading to virtual work impact so many aspects of our lives: the way we buy, sell, network, communicate, participate, create, consume, and, of course, the way we work. In turn they focus on the subsequent implications for the future of work as well as the viability of existing social protection systems.

The developments examined here are salient for both policy stakeholders and for the academic community in areas such as labour sociology, industrial relations, gender studies, political economy, and economic geography.

Autorentext

Pamela Meil is Senior Research Fellow and member of the board of governors at the Institute for Social Science Research, Germany.

Vassil Kirov is Associate Professor at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and Associate Researcher at ETUI.

Inhalt
Part 1: Concepts and debates.- 1.- Introduction: The policy implications of virtual work; Pamela Meil and Vassil Kirov.- 2. Where did Online Platforms come from? The virtualization of work organization and the new policy challenges it raises; Ursula Huws.- Part 2: Measuring virtual work.- 3. Crowd employment and ICT-based mobile work new employment forms in Europe; Irene Mandl and Maurizio Curtarelli.- Part 3: Discourses and Principles of Regulation.- 4. Regulating the void: Online participatory cultures, user-generated content, and the Digital Agenda for Europe; Bjarki Valtysson.- 5. The Imperative of Code: labor, regulation and legitimacy; Shenja van der Graaf and Eran Fisher.- Part 4: Sharing, cooperating and streaming in the digital economy.- 6. Assessing Music Streaming and Industry Disruptions; Daniel Nordgård.- 7. Information Communication Technologies, citizens, and parliament in Portugal: the continued e-democracy gap and lessons from the Obama experience; Carlos Cunha and Filipa Seiceira.- 8. Sharing Economy as an urban phenomenon: Examining policies for Sharing Cities; Silvia Mazzucotelli Salice and Ivana Pais.- Part 5: Organizing, Protecting and Regulating Labor.- 9. Workers, Contradictions and Digital Commodity Chains: Organizing with Content Creators in Canada; Karen Wirsig and James Compton.- 10. Digitalization of public services in Europe: policy challenges for the European trade union movement; Vassil Kirov.- 11. The Legal Protection of Crowdworkers: Four Avenues for workers' rights in the virtual realm; Jeremias Prassl and Martin Risak.