About the Workshop

Workshop Themes and Research Questions

Digital platforms such as Uber, WeChat, TaskRabbit, WhatsApp, IndieGogo, Meta, and YouTube are changing the nature of work, transforming service and creative industries, and reshaping how people think about market exchange, competition, and collaboration. The rise of platforms is linked to the growth of precarious work, rising inequality, and the shifting of risk from organizations to individuals. At the same time, it is clear that some of those who operate within “platform capitalism” see themselves as entrepreneurs rather than exploited workers. 

• When do platforms serve as robust infrastructures for entrepreneurship? 

• When do they breed further precarity and exacerbate inequality? 

• How do these two dynamics intertwine in different types of platforms (virtual and place-based) and industries? 

• How do long-standing intersectional inequalities based on class, race, gender, or sexuality bear on platform work? 

• And how can global and comparative perspectives generate new insights into the relationships between platforms and their institutional ecologies? 

In general, we welcome submissions that discuss platform economies and the ways that these technological and institutional infrastructures are transforming how people start businesses, organize projects, and understand their labor and creativity. We are especially interested in interdisciplinary work that explores how platforms structure the possibilities for micro-entrepreneurship, flexible labor, worker and entrepreneurship training, and other internet-mediated economic activities that have expanded in recent years—posing individuals and communities with new opportunities for growth and ingenuity, yet also new risks of exploitation and abuse. This unique and interdisciplinary gathering of scholars will help participants place their work within the broader landscape of scholarship on platform economies, entrepreneurship, and labor inequality. 

Presentation Types and Submission Process

We invite submissions of two sorts. First, those who are conducting research on relevant topics are invited to submit a précis (1- or 2-page single-spaced pages, approximately 500-1,000 words) for a paper to be presented and discussed during the workshop. Second, those who are just starting to do research in this area are invited to submit brief descriptions (100-200 words) of their emerging projects, some of which will be selected for short “speed presentations” during the workshop. To submit your paper précis or speed-presentation description, go to the Submissions form.

Small grants will be available to help defray travel costs for presenters who do not have other travel funds available. To make the workshop as inclusive as possible, we strongly encourage submissions from graduate students, early-career faculty, and scholars of color, among others.

We will review the submissions and contact the authors by early April. Papers will be grouped into sessions based on common themes and research interests. If selected, you will be expected to share a full paper by July 17, 2023. 

*We allow parallel submissions, which means we will still accept your work even if it is already accepted for other ASA panels/roundtables.

Limited travel funding is available to help defray the costs of attendance for workshop participants.

Organizing committee: Tim Bartley, Victor Tan Chen, Ashley Mears, Thao Nguyen, Benjamin Shestakofsky, Steven Vallas, Zoe Zhao.

For a text-only copy of our call for submissions (to distribute on mailing lists, etc.), visit this page.