Digital worker feedback infrastructures

  • In this paper, we present empirical research on what we call "digital worker feedback infrastructures" (DWFI); these are communication systems based on digital technologies that allow for creating so-called "feedback data" via different forms of information input of workers in global value chains (GVC). The paper provides an overview of over 50 current DWFIs in GVCs and asks about the main differences between management-oriented and worker-centred digital feedback infrastructures in their usage of worker data. In the first part, we trace the emergence of DWFIs at the intersection of different trends: the continuous non-improvement of working conditions through auditing, the permanent politicisation, and contestation of this fact through labour and activist networks as well as the development of new digital technologies. In the second section, we elaborate the main features of DWFIs and analyse potential shortcomings in the context of the "ethical" audit and monitoring regime for GVCs. Third, we use our dataset to present an overview of the heterogeneity of DWFIs. We pay particular attention to examples of civil society developed tools as we suggest that they provide a glimpse of the potential of worker feedback technologies from below, which could contribute to better monitoring of worker rights and facilitate a more democratic coordination of workplaces and GVCs.

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Metadaten
Author:Christoph SorgORCiDGND, Carolina Alves VestenaORCiDGND, Christian ScheperORCiDGND, Sabrina ZajakORCiDGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hbz:294-121904
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1017/elr.2023.36
Parent Title (English):The economic and labour relations review
Subtitle (English):The digitalisation of worker rights monitoring in global value chains
Publisher:Cambridge University Press
Place of publication:Cambridge
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2024/12/04
Date of first Publication:2023/09/28
Publishing Institution:Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universitätsbibliothek
Tag:digitalisation; global value chains; labour governance; social audits; worker rights
Volume:34
Issue:3
First Page:518
Last Page:535
Institutes/Facilities:Institut für soziale Bewegungen (ISB)
Dewey Decimal Classification:Sozialwissenschaften / Sozialwissenschaften, Soziologie, Anthropologie
open_access (DINI-Set):open_access
faculties:Fakultät für Sozialwissenschaft
Licence (English):License LogoCreative Commons - CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 - Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International