What do platforms do? Understanding the gig economy
平台何为？理解零工经济
Author: Steven Vallas（斯蒂文·瓦拉斯）、Juliet B. Schor（朱丽叶·B·舒尔）
Source：《Annual Review of Sociology》2020 Volume46
Abstract: The rapid growth of the platform economy has provoked scholarly discussion of its consequences for the nature of work and employment. We identify four major themes in the literature on platform work and the underlying metaphors associated with each. Platforms are seen as entrepreneurial incubators, digital cages, accelerants of precarity, and chameleons adapting to their environments. Each of these devices has limitations, which leads us to introduce an alternative image of platforms: as permissive potentates that externalize responsibility and control over economic transactions while still exercising concentrated power. As a consequence, platforms represent a distinct type of governance mechanism, different from markets, hierarchies, or networks, and therefore pose a unique set of problems for regulators, workers, and their competitors in the conventional economy. Reflecting the instability of the platform structure, struggles over regulatory regimes are dynamic and difficult to predict, but they are sure to gain in prominence as the platform economy grows.
文摘：平台经济的快速增长引发了关于其对工作和就业性质影响的学术讨论。我们识别了有关平台工作文献中的四个主要主题以及与每个主题相关的潜在隐喻：平台被视为创业孵化器、数字牢笼、不稳定性的加速剂以及适应环境的变色龙。由于这些隐喻修辞各有局限，我们引入了平台的另一种形象，即“放任的专制者”；它们在将经济交易的责任和控制权外部化的同时，仍行使着集中的权力。因此，平台代表了一种独特的治理机制，不同于市场、科层或网络，从而给监管者、工人及其在传统经济中的竞争对手带来了一系列独特的问题。反映出平台结构的不稳定性，围绕监管制度的博弈是动态且难以预测的，但随着平台经济的增长，这些博弈必将愈发凸显。
Keywords: platform economy; gig work; precarious work; digital revolution; sharing economy
编译：任艳林、刘鑫
