Platform Labour: Contingent Histories and New Technologies

Peer Reviewe

It Obliges You to Do Things You Normally Wouldn't: Organizing and Consuming Private Life in the Age of Airbnb

In what ways do everyday life and private spaces become productive elements for platform organizations? Referring to a research on Airbnb (a platform-based company and current leader at the global level in the online hospitality industry) recently conducted in a touristic north-eastern Italian province, this paper critically explores to what degree and how Airbnb pervades, changes and controls the Hosts' domestic space and spare time. To do so, first we will concentrate on the elements that regulate the relationship between the user and the platform and on some of the processes and mechanisms implied by the platform architecture. Then, by describing the everyday practices of "house-management" enacted by the Hosts, we will highlight the invisible work involved in 'performing the platform'. From this point of view, it is worth noticing how, although Airbnb does not aim to create a parallel labour market, it produces 'platform workers' anyway, in that it implies the active engagement of its users in concrete activities. Airbnb is thus a perfect case to look at the ways in which platform organizations engage users in forms of production previously unknown, turning private goods and time into productive elements

Economic Change and Farmers Markets in Contemporary Cuba

The Cuban Revolution has generated remarkable social achievements through a unique style of people-centered development. However, economic productivity has remained low, and for much of the Revolution agriculture has strongly revolved around the cultivation of sugarcane. The fall of the Soviet Union caused severe hardships in Cuba, leading to contractions in the economy and decreases in food imports. The government responded to these circumstances through measures like promoting tourism and foreign direct investment, legalizing the U.S. dollar, permitting self-employment, and creating farmers markets in which supply and demand determined prices. While during the 1990’s these were regarded as temporary actions to meet needs, President Raul Castro has sought to change the structure of Cuba’s socialist model. The 2011 Sixth Conference of the Communist Party marked a turning point in the reform process and stressed decentralization the economy, achieving higher economic productivity, and moving away from notions of egalitarianism. Castro noted that “updating” the Cuban economy could not occur overnight, and that implementing the revised model would take at least five years. This thesis examines how recent economic reforms to decentralize the economy have affected the lives of individuals. I utilize farmers markets as a case study of these reforms and ask: What do the experiences of sellers and buyers in farmers markets indicate about the larger process of change in Cuba? To examine this question, during 2016 I conducted ethnographic interviews with market sellers and potential buyers in the cities of Havana and Santiago over a period of nearly two months. When comparing the markets where entrepreneurs sold to those operated by the state, I found that entrepreneurs consistently offered a wider range of higher quality products, but at elevated prices (three times state levels in Havana, and two times in Santiago). These prices were unaffordable for many individuals, yet particularly affected the elderly and those without remittances. While farmers markets are beneficial in terms of making produce available, not all can purchase what they need. Interviews showed that the quality and variety of entrepreneurs’ produce resulted from possessing autonomy in decision-making, feeling a sense of ownership, and knowing that their efforts would yield tangible results. While market sellers worked as entrepreneurs because it offered necessary financial benefits, at the same time sellers highlighted that socialism possessed various merits. General participants in this study utilized a wide range of strategies to fulfill their needs, and often described these strategies through the terms “invent” (inventar) or “resolve” (resolver). Although food is where the low purchasing power of the Cuban peso is most problematic, other basic necessities also result costly. However, not all Cubans face the same realities. This was demonstrated by the manner in which interviewees viewed the ration book- while some no longer used their monthly allotments, for others they continued to play a significant role in satisfying food needs. One participant went so far as to say that certain people would starve if rations were removed. Overall, this study finds that individuals perceive the changes occurring in Cuba to be gradual, and mostly restricted to the economic realm. While socialism remains important, some interviewees were inclined towards pragmatism. They were much more concerned with whether government policies would improve their quality of life, than if these policies were socialist or capitalist per se. Although economic reforms have produced gains for some, ensuring the well-being of all Cubans will require additional updating of the economy in the coming years

the case of accommodation sharing

Thesis(Doctoral) --KDI School:Ph.D in Public Policy,2019The purpose of this study is to provide implications on policy preparation and amendments on laws and regulations in accommodation sharing in Korea by exploring the current status of demand and supply sides. This study consists of four parts to investigate i) perceived characteristics of accommodation sharing, ii) the impact of attributes of accommodations sharing on business performance, iii) individuals’ perceptions of policy reactions, and iv) exploratory research of current laws and regulations of different countries. First, this study finds that actual preferences of accommodation sharing conflicts with the issues on laws and regulations regarding property and sharing types. Guests who prefer to share entire houses consider instrumental attributes related to properties, while guests who prefer a portion of the house consider relatively more about social interactions, sustainability, and community benefit. Sharing a portion of the houses is legal and more suitable for policy intentions because the policies promote the local economy and community recovery by maximizing the utility of resources and interactions with the community. Further, this study finds that individuals with experience of accommodation sharing tend to have more positive attitudes toward accommodation sharing and perceive more necessity of policy reactions. Among proposed policy instruments, individuals perceive local ordinances, government publicizing and campaign, trust marks, taxation, penalties, and government controls are effective to build trust in accommodation sharing. Individuals evaluate that policies geared toward the majority of the public are more effective, and governments should establish a strategic approach as to which policies are introduced in public and which role the government plays in the departments. Currently, governments have been required the incompatible roles of eliminating regulatory barriers for newly introduced sharing economy business and minimizing the damages to existing industries. This study provides policy and managerial implications what is the most important for the citizen satisfaction associated with proper preparations and amendments of laws and regulations.I. Introduction II. Literature Reviews III. Study 1: Qualitative Research using Secondary Data IV. Study 2: Quantitative Research using Secondary Data V. Study 3: Quantitative Research using Primary Data VI. Study 4: Comparative Study on Policies in Various Societies VII. ConclusiondoctoralpublishedEun Joo LEE

Social Policies and Institutional Reform in Post-COVID Cuba

The economic crisis in the wake of the COVID pandemic is putting Cuba's socialism to a severe test. The government in Havana has added a fundamental reform of the economy, institutional structure and social policies to the agenda. This volume brings together contributions from leading international experts as well as from the island itself, analysing the economic, political and social challenges Cuba is facing today

Cinematic Voyages: Québécois Transnational Filmmaking and Cuban Domesticity

This dissertation follows scholarship on transnational film studies, tourism studies, and film and media ethnography to examine Québécois feature films that directly address the issue of international tourism to the island while proposing alternatives to both translocal filmmaking and touristic practices. I investigate the involvement of domestic hospitality businesses in Cuba (paladares, private restaurants located in family households, and casas particulares, bed-and-breakfast-type hostels) as unofficial partners in transnational film productions between Québec and Cuba, namely in the films All you can eat Buddha (Ian Lagarde, 2017), Cuba Merci Gracias (Alex B. Martin, 2018) and Sur les toits Havane (Pedro Ruiz, 2019). I contend that these films constitute cinematic voyages, i.e., the intuitive application of entrepreneurial tactics to leisure and cultural travels, personal affective relations, and domestic spaces and activities in Cuba towards the completion of independent transnational film projects. Each chapter foregrounds Cuban domesticity in the different capacities it interacts with foreign film and media productions originating from Québec. The first chapter traces the antecedents of these practices and how domesticity appears as an infrastructure and thematic preoccupation that propitiates grassroots forms of cultural diplomacy based predominantly on the creative labor of migrant women. The second chapter examines the flexibility of casas particulares in Cuba as they develop skills, adapt their spaces, and employ local knowledges and workforces to meet the needs of foreign film enterprises. This flexibility results from performing multiple gestures of transborder and transcultural, gendered identifications, acts of solidarity and material care between otherwise unrelated laboring subjects working on location. In the third chapter, I analyze a Québécois road movie and how it turns the domestic into a gendered transnational social space with a matrifocal character. The fourth chapter argues that the process of Latinx-Québécois transnational filmmaking exists in a continuum with the spectral position imposed by the Cuban socialist regime on homosexual identities, transcultural/multiracial affective and sexual arrangements, private tourism venues, and para-legal domestic practices. I contend that latinidad/latinité in Québec and queer/alternative domesticities in Cuba appear as translocal objects negotiated and refashioned through a distinctive Afro-Queer-Caribbean positionality against their respective hostile environments

Cross-cultural Mutuality: Exploring Philanthropic, Faith-based Partnerships Between Cuba and the United States

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)In the global age, grass-roots religious organizations seek to better collaborate across national and cultural borders. Through the theoretical lens of mutuality, this dissertation explores the nature and quality of interpersonal relationships inherent in faith-based, philanthropic partnerships between the United States and Cuba. Mutuality is a framework for understanding human relationships; it describes when people regard one another as whole persons and a relationship as something of inherent value. This study explores the value of relationships, the processes by which they form, how they relate to institutional structures, and the role of a common faith in bridging other cultural differences. Religious communities are considered the primary civil society institutions with national reach in Cuba. The research site for this study is a Protestant civil society organization on the outskirts of Havana, Cuba called Campo Amor. Campo Amor operates both nonprofit and for-profit activities and receives substantial American donations through a foundation in Spain. Over the past 20 years, Campo Amor has multiplied from two to more than 120 house churches. Before COVID-19 it welcomed more than 500 American partners each year. Using a co-created, phenomenological qualitative design, this study will provide knowledge into the role of relationships in philanthropic, faith-based partnerships, particularly between regions of geopolitical hostilities. It advances understanding of the role of religion and relationships in philanthropy across a variety of cultural differences. Among other findings, interviewees described mutuality as 1. the commitment to sharing; 2. Intersubjective relationships which enter into and care about the thoughts and feelings of another; and 3. the habitual approach that emphasized living one’s way into patterns of thought, versus thinking one’s way into patterns of life