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- Bergvall-Kåreborn, Birgitta, et al.
(author)
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Amazon Mechanical Turk and the Commodification of labour
- 2014
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In: New technology, work and employment. - : Wiley. - 0268-1072 .- 1468-005X. ; 29:3, s. 213-223
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Crowd employment platforms enable firms to source labour and expertise by leveraging Internet technology. Rather than offshoring jobs to low-cost geographies, functions once performed by internal employees can be outsourced to an undefined pool of digital labour using a virtual network. This enables firms to shift costs and offload risk as they access a flexible, scalable workforce that sits outside the traditional boundaries of labour laws and regulations. The micro-tasks of 'clickwork' are tedious, repetitive and poorly paid, with remuneration often well below minimum wage. This article will present an analysis of one of the most popular crowdsourcing sites-Mechanical Turk-to illuminate how Amazon's platform enables an array of companies to access digital labour at low cost and without any of the associated social protection or moral obligation.
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