The Working World in the Digital Age
The digital transformation of society over the last 20 years has occurred at a time when individuals' relationship to work has been profoundly altered by the neoliberal ideology encouraging new forms of employment (freelance work, self-employment, etc.) and new work-related values (autonomy, initiative, "agility", etc.).
These two concurrent changes have forced social science researchers to rethink the relationship to work in the digital age, and the ways it is realized, framed, and perceived by those doing it.
Microwork
Digital labor
Platforms
Cooperative economics
Coworking
Slash careers (multiple jobs)
Our Research in the University's Labs
Université Paris Dauphine – PSL conducts various research projects in this area, with a particular focus on two topics:
- new forms of work tied to cooperative economics
- the digital transformations of working conditions
Dauphine Management Research is one of the most important French research centers in management science.
UMR CNRS 7088
DRMDauphine Management Research
The Interdisciplinary Research Institute in Social Sciences brings together sociologists, political scientists, and economists. The work is structured around five major themes, with a focus on methodology, international aspects, and issues related to gender.
UMR CNRS INRA 7170-1427
IRISSOInterdisciplinary Research Institute in Social Sciences
The Dauphine Economics Laboratory gathers all the Dauphine economics teams around theoretical and applied work, common tools and international networks.
UMR CNRS IRD 8007-260
LEDaDauphine Economics Laboratory
Our Research
New Forms of Work Tied to the Platform Economy
The platform economy is based on new methods of value creation, as the user or customer is a full-fledged participant in producing the good or service.
Several phenomena are investigated by the social sciences in the resulting new ways in which individuals relate to work, particularly the expansion of micro-entrepreneur profiles, the emergence of micro-tasks broken up to the extreme (also known as digital labor), and the role of platforms in how work is framed.
Our Researchers
Sarah Abdelnour, Sophie Bernard, Pauline Barraud de Lagerie, Valérie Guillard, Anne Jourdain, Dominique Méda, François-Xavier de Vaujany
Published Research
- de Lagerie, P. B., & Santos, L. S. (2018). Et pour quelques euros de plus. Reseaux, (6), 51-84
- Guillard, V. (2017) Comprendre la relation collaborative d’échange de temps au sein des Accorderies. Une analyse par la théorie de l’échange social. Revue française de gestion, 2017/4 (N° 265), pages 9 à 24
- Jourdain, A. (2018). « Faites de votre passion un métier ». Etsy, une plateforme d’émancipation féminine ? La nouvelle revue du travail, (13)
- Abdelnour S., Méda D. (2019), Les nouveaux travailleurs des applis, Paris : PUF - Presses Universitaires de France, 112 p.
- Conférence « Les plateformes numériques et l'avenir du travail » ; 18 octobre 2019
Digital Transformations of Working Conditions
The technological explosion in the professional and private spheres has led to a rethinking of the standard space-time confines of work. Historically, the employment contract would precisely state the time and place of work. By contrast, technology – mobile technology in particular – now provides opportunities for ubiquitous work (the ability to work when and where one likes).
These reconsidered boundaries of organizations and collective work are extensively explored by researchers at Dauphine-PSL, particularly with regard to the emergence of shared work spaces and methods (coworking), as well as mobile work (digital nomads).
The automation and robotization of work also raises new managerial questions in relation to the deskilling of human work and the loss of meaning.
Our Researchers
François-Xavier de Vaujany, Henri Isaac, Sophie Bernard
Published Research
- Aroles, J., Granter, E., & de Vaujany, F. X. (2020). ‘Becoming mainstream’ : the professionalisation and corporatisation of digital nomadism. New Technology, Work and Employment, 35(1), 114-129.
- Bernard, S. (2012). Travail et automatisation des services. La fin des caissières ? Octarès Éditions.
- Leclercq-Vandelannoitte, A., & Isaac, H. (2016). The new office : how coworking changes the work concept. Journal of Business Strategy.
- De Vaujany, F. X., & Aroles, J. (2019). Nothing happened, something happened : Silence in a makerspace. Management Learning, 50(2), 208-225.
- Abdelnour S., Méda D. (2019), Les nouveaux travailleurs des applis, Paris : PUF - Presses Universitaires de France, 112 p.
New Ways of Relating to Work
In the last 10 years or so, the digital transformation of society has been accompanied by a phenomenon of worker dispersion, sometimes referred to as uberization. As with the taxi drivers facing the new value proposition of TNCs, certain sectors are experiencing a gradual shift of their workers' status, from employee or artisan to independent micro-entrepreneur.
Although this movement is currently affecting a limited number of sectors, it encourages discourse and practices that question whether wage labor is the ultimate model on which to base the work-individual relationship. In particular, the new category of slash careers has appeared, combining various activities and worker statuses, a sign of novel aspirations in the individual's relationship to work.
Our Researchers
Sarah Abdelnour, Sophie Bernard, François-Xavier de Vaujany, Pierre Laniray
Published Research
- Bernard, S. (2020). Le nouvel esprit du salariat : Rémunérations, autonomie, inégalités. Presses Universitaires de France.
- Bohas et al. (2018). Hybridations salariat-entrepreneuriat et nouvelles pratiques de travail : des slashers à l'entrepreneuriat-alterné. Technologie et innovation. Vol 3. DOI : 10.21494/ISTE.OP.2018.0199
- Projet ANR CAPLA « Fragmentation du travail, marchandisation du "travail à-côté" : le capitalisme de plate-forme et ses impacts sociaux »(2016-2019) ; Sarah Abdelnour (Laboratoire IRISSO)
- Abdelnour S., Méda D. (2019), Les nouveaux travailleurs des applis, Paris : PUF - Presses Universitaires de France, 112 p.