The project – PLUS
▻https://project-plus.eu/the-project
PLUS aims to address the main features of the platform economy’s impact on work, welfare and social protection through a ground-breaking trans-urban approach.
The platform economy, indeed, is emerging as a strategic sector in terms of application of digital technologies, business investments and new jobs.
The project’s goal is to sketch a picture of such transformations proposing an innovative approach that identifies urban dimension as fundamental stage for measuring and evaluating social and economic impact of these innovations and for building more inclusive policies.
So, the idea is to contribute to fill a gap both in understanding and tackling challenges posed by digitization of labour.
PLUS frames a ground-breaking grid of investigation that intertwines four disruptive platforms (AirBnb, Deliveroo, Helpling and Uber) and seven European cities (Barcelona, Berlin, Bologna, Lisbon, London, Paris, Tallinn).
A multi-disciplinary legal, socio-economic, political, historical approach articulated in desk analysis, field research (both qualitative and quantitative), and action research (based on communities of practice, social laboratories and pilots-cases) will be adopted in order to foster new alternative scenarios that can contribute to promote social protection, economic development and well-being in digital labour.
A bottom-up approach and techniques of co-creation will be adopted to produce outputs directly impacting on policy-making, market and welfare: innovative typologies of contracts, a Chart for digital workers’ rights, taxation and regulation guidelines, social enterprise pilots and educational patterns for new skills.
Whom are our actions / studies / initiatives focused on? What for?
Workers of the platform economies. Improving access to information on safety, support and labour rights will have as impact a contribution to fairness and better working conditions (gender perspective included). Enhancing professional standards, ethics, guidelines or training. Researching has informed public understanding, values, attitudes or behaviours. Improving access to employment through skills empowerment.
Platform managers. Improving awareness-raising on innovative models of business inside platform economy that could combine innovative aspects of labour organization with an ethic of social entrepreneurship. More effective management.
City’s administrators. Informing and influencing legislation and policies processes in: the regulation of platform economy, fairness and well-being; new social policies that could contribute to promoting social inclusion; tax and benefits that could foster economic competitiveness. Improving welfare outcomes through new taxation policies.
European policy makers. Informing and influencing legislation and policies processes in: the regulation of platform economy, fairness and well-being; new social policies that could contribute to promoting social inclusion; tax and benefits that could foster economic competitiveness. Changing legislation and regulations.
Unions. Improving the knowledge and awareness about challenges of digitalization. Informing and influencing the organizations to adapt to changing cultural values.
Business companies. Proposing a social enterprise initiative through the pilots.
Associations / Civil society / platform users. Generating a public debate formed / informed by the investigation.
People at risk of social exclusion. Improving access to employment through skills empowerment. Improving access to information on safety, support and labour rights will have as impact a contribution to fairness and better working conditions (gender perspective included).
Students. Improved access to employment through skills empowerment.
Doctors and psychologists specialized in work environment. Informing and improving knowledge about diseases and problems that may arise in workers related to collaborative platforms. Laying the foundation for a specific action protocol.