There are now tens of millions of digital ‘platform workers’ that live all over the world, doing work that outsourced via platforms or apps in the “gig economy”. Lacking the ability to collectively bargain, platform workers have little ability to negotiate wages and working conditions with their employers who are often on the other side of the world. This project undertakes innovative research that focuses on these workers, their experiences, labour processes, and the organisation of their work. The platform economy is rapidly expanding, particularly in developing and emerging economies. With this, the future of work is becoming the present and there is an urgent need to engage with its consequences. Contemporary researchers, as well as existing political and regulative frameworks, lack the appropriate methods and conceptual approaches to make sense of the phenomena.
The main objective of the project is to set up a long-term structure to form a ‘Fairwork Foundation’ that will be committed to highlighting best and worst practices in the emerging platform economy. Selected stakeholders, including governments, platform operators, unions and donors will be consulted to engage in a dialogue to establish the Foundation. Much like the Fairtrade Foundation has been able to certify the production chains of commodities like coffee and chocolate, the Fairwork Foundation will certify the production networks of the platform economy. This seeks to harness ‘consumer power’, along with leverage from workers and platforms, to significantly contribute to the welfare and job quality of digital workers.
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With Dr Funda Ustek Spilda, and Srujana Katta
In this webinar, Funda Ustek-Spilda and Srujana Katta will talk about the Fairwork Project, an action-research project at the Oxford Internet Institute.
5 March 2025
New report by the University of California, Irvine, King’s College London and Oxford University reveals best and worst practices in the platform economy in the US.
16 January 2025
Professor Mark Graham introduces a new framework for the field of development studies to help ensure real world impact and relevance in the digital age.
29 July 2024
Professor Mark Graham highlights the hidden human cost of AI and shares observations from his latest book 'Feeding the Machine: the Hidden Human Labour Powering AI'.
2 July 2024
Fairwork researchers propose recommendations for the incoming government, to provide a foundation for fairer and more sustainable platform work in the UK.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, 27 April 2025
Hit by workers’ rights lawsuits in Kenya, the tech giant has moved its outsourcing to a top-secret new site – where life is grimmer still
The Economist, 23 January 2025
The article discusses online hate speech, content moderation and the impact on low-paid African workers employed by tech giants, with brief commentary from Prof Mark Graham, OII.
BBC Radio 4, 05 November 2024
Laurie Taylor lifts the lid on a sector of the economy associated with wealth, innovation & genius. Mark Graham, Professor of Internet Geography at the Oxford Internet Institute, uncovers the hidden human labour powering AI.
Euronews, 22 September 2024
In Finland, prisoners have been participating in AI annotation tasks, such as labelling and classifying data, as part of their rehabilitation.
This project will examine how the growth of gig work in the United States can contribute to growing inequalities, and develop a framework for understanding best practice for fairer work standards.
Drawing on the five OECD principles for responsible stewardship of trustworthy AI, this project proposes developing a set of accountability mechanisms to ensure AI systems foster fairer working conditions.
The Fairwork project aims to ameliorate working conditions by closely engaging with and supporting platforms to improve their policies. This project aims to implement the established methodology and approach of Fairwork in Ghana.
