A trade between flexibility and security: examining the evolution of non-standard work arrangements and ways to rebalance the position of platform workers in the labor exchange

This chapter explores a trade-off between insecurities and flexibilities of gig work. It revisits the evolution of non-standard employment arrangements in the formal and informal contexts to scrutinize the employers’ logic and point out shortcomings of unbalanced distribution of benefits in the labor exchange. Employment flexibility can provide benefits for both employers and workers and as such should be advocated as one of the routes to labor market integration. Evidence suggests that for many other groups of workers gig work diminishes security and stability of employment as it rarely offers an equivalent of full-time job. Using an example of project-work originally devised in arts, the chapter examines circumstances under which flexible work arrangements are justified by the nature of production. Creative projects can offer a useful lens to question the fit between the nature of work and employment practices. Partnerships of self-governed and self-organized work are another pathway for rebalancing employment power dynamics.