Dr Funda Ustek-Spilda a postdoctoral researcher and project manager on the Fairwork project at the Oxford Internet Institute.
Dr Funda Ustek-Spilda
Researcher
- funda.ustek@oii.ox.ac.uk
- +44 (0)1865 287210
Profile
Dr Funda Ustek-Spilda a postdoctoral researcher and project manager on the Fairwork project at the Oxford Internet Institute.
Her background is in sociology, with thematic focuses in labour, migration and gender. Her research examined the reasons and implications of being counted and not being counted in data, from the perspectives of ethics, responsibility and fairness.
She holds a DPhil from the University of Oxford (St. Cross College) in Sociology (2015) as a Professor Anthony Heath & St. Cross College Scholarship holder and MSc in Comparative Social Policy (2010) (St. Edmund Hall) as an Ahmet Ertegun – Bogazici University scholar. In her doctoral thesis, she studied survival strategies of women workers in Turkey as they navigated various jobs in the informal labour market.
Before joining Fairwork, she previously held a postdoctoral researcher position at ARITHMUS: How data make a people based at Goldsmiths, University of London, Department of Sociology (2014-2018); and VIRT-EU: Values and Ethics in Innovation for Responsible Technology in Europe, based at the London School of Economics, Department of Media and Communications (2018-2019).
Her current work with the Fairwork project explores and aims to improve working conditions for platform workers in India and other partnership countries. She is interested in studying the relationship between autonomous decision-making systems that assign, allocate, govern and control workers’ lives in platform economy and workers’ resistance strategies for fair work.
Position held at OII:
- Postdoctoral Researcher, January 2020 –
Videos
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The Fairwork Foundation: Strategies for Improving Platform Work
Recorded: 22 July 2020
Duration: 01:01:39
In this webinar, Funda Ustek-Spilda and Srujana Katta talk about the Fairwork Project, an action-research project at the Oxford Internet Institute.
News
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New report calls for gig economy platforms to provide Covid-19 testing for workers
24 September 2020
Researchers from the Oxford Internet Institute (OII), University of Oxford, urge gig economy platforms to introduce more robust health and safety measures for gig workers.
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Report finds gig workers are among the most vulnerable groups in South Africa’s Covid-19 crisis
13 May 2020
A research report released today shows that those working in South Africa’s gig economy are falling through the cracks of government and private sector responses to Covid-19.
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New report finds gig economy companies must do more to protect workers during COVID-19
27 April 2020
A new report has shone a light on the plight of some 50 million gig economy workers across the world since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Events
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The Fairwork Foundation: Strategies for Improving Platform Work
22 July 2020
In this webinar, Funda Ustek-Spilda and Srujana Katta will talk about the Fairwork Project, an action-research project at the Oxford Internet Institute.
Press
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At the whim of Amazon’ — after the pandemic, gig workers are getting organized
21 July 2021 Politico
The coronavirus pandemic may have caused the worst jobs crisis since the Great Depression. And yet, for the gig workers that so many businesses and consumers have come to rely on, it’s also provided an impetus for a new, global rights movement.
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Gig platforms treated workers ‘unfairly’ during pandemic, study says
24 September 2020 Politico
Gig economy platforms like Uber, Deliveroo, Bolt and Glovo failed to compensate workers enough for lost income during the coronavirus pandemic and many companies still don't offer sick pay despite increased risks of infection, a new study shows.
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How is the platform economy responding to COVID-19?
14 May 2020 Open Democracy
Although there is little evidence of ‘disaster capitalism’, ‘compassionate capitalism’ has been in rather short supply.
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If platforms do not protect gig workers, who will?
23 April 2020 New Internationalist
Coronavirus is showing that precarity and dangerous working conditions are a choice companies have been making for workers, not a necessary payoff for flexibility and independence, say Fairwork researchers.
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From Social Distancing to Social Solidarity: Gig economy and the Covid-19
27 March 2020 OECD Development Matters
The risks faced by members of the gig economy during the Covid-19 outbreak.
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The politics of Covid-19: Gig work in the coronavirus crisis
26 March 2020 red pepper
How long are we willing to turn a blind eye to the vulnerabilities of essential workers on the bottom of the employment hierarchy, asks the Fairwork Foundation.
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The Untenable Luxury of Self-isolation
18 March 2020 New Internationalist
A coalition of gig economy researchers at Fairwork explain how gig workers are being hit hardest by COVID-19.
Integrity Statement
I conduct my research in line with the University's academic integrity code of practice.