The past, present and future of gig work

The growth of businesses offering services through digital platforms, produced by workers engaged on a contingent, piece-work basis, is often heralded as a technologically-driven and innovative practice that is transforming the nature of employment. This chapter shows that the core features of digitally mediated “gig” work are in fact hundreds of years old, having been applied in pre-digital business models throughout the history of capitalism. Gig work is better understood as a return to previous practices, rather than a new model of employment, and is part of a wider increase in insecure and non-standard work under neoliberalism. The ebb and flow of contingent or precarious work arrangements over the past century reflects many economic, political, and social determinants, not just technology. Those trends may change direction again in the future, so there is no certainty that gig work will continue to expand.