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University of California Press

Hustle and Gig

Struggling and Surviving in the Sharing Economy

by Alexandrea J. Ravenelle (Author)
Price: $29.95 / £25.00
Publication Date: Mar 2019
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 288
ISBN: 9780520971899
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Illustrations: 14 b/w illustrations, 2 tables

About the Book

Choose your hours, choose your work, be your own boss, control your own income. Welcome to the sharing economy, a nebulous collection of online platforms and apps that promise to transcend capitalism. Supporters argue that the gig economy will reverse economic inequality, enhance worker rights, and bring entrepreneurship to the masses. But does it?
 
In Hustle and Gig, Alexandrea J. Ravenelle shares the personal stories of nearly eighty predominantly millennial workers from Airbnb, Uber, TaskRabbit, and Kitchensurfing. Their stories underline the volatility of working in the gig economy: the autonomy these young workers expected has been usurped by the need to maintain algorithm-approved acceptance and response rates. The sharing economy upends generations of workplace protections such as worker safety; workplace protections around discrimination and sexual harassment; the right to unionize; and the right to redress for injuries. Discerning three types of gig economy workers—Success Stories, who have used the gig economy to create the life they want; Strugglers, who can’t make ends meet; and Strivers, who have stable jobs and use the sharing economy for extra cash—Ravenelle examines the costs, benefits, and societal impact of this new economic movement. Poignant and evocative, Hustle and Gig exposes how the gig economy is the millennial’s version of minimum-wage precarious work.

About the Author

Alexandrea J. Ravenelle is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Mercy College and Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Public Knowledge at NYU.

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Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

1. Strugglers, Strivers, and Success Stories
2. What Is the Sharing Economy?
3. Forward to the Past and the Early Industrial Age
4. Workplace Troubles
5. Sharing Is Caring
6. All in a Day’s (Dirty) Work
7. Living the Dream?
8. Conclusion

Appendix 1. Demographic Survey
Appendix 2. Interview Matrix
Notes
References
Index

Reviews

"The book is at its best and most useful when detailing—often in workers own words—the litany of injustices, indignities, and unsafe conditions visited upon the people working for these services. Such issues are not surprising and speak directly to why the Labor Department’s directive is so problematic. Nevertheless, the sheer volume of workplace injuries, unreachable employers, legally tenuous situations like drug delivery and credit card scams, denied benefits, endemic sexual harassment, low wages, and constant stress about whether one will get hired enough on a day-to-day level is striking."
New Labor Forum
"Hustle and Gig is a timely and important addition to the nascent but rapidly expanding literature of this new economic movement. It vividly bring to life the realities that many gig workers face today as they move forward to the past. The reality that many face challenges not unlike their peers from over a century ago—piecemeal work, low wages, and lacking basic protections. Hustle and Gig would be of particular interest to scholars studying non-standard work arrangements and employment relations, but also to scholars with a general interest in work and occupations or labor history."
Social Forces
"Ravenelle’s account of the state of gig work in Hustle and Gig is a great starting point: both the breadth of sectors covered and the depth of the ethnographic material are fantastic and add important detail to the techlash movement that is so often empirically weak."
LSE Review of Books
"Hustle and Gig is a refreshing and important statement about the structural changes evident in contemporary capitalism. The book is written with style and verve, yet is accessible and even ideal for assignment in classes on work, organizations, and social inequality. It is perhaps the most thoughtful and provocative depiction of the structural changes impinging on work as the sharing economy gains force. It deserves a wide audience."
 
Sociological Forum

"Hustle and Gig is a timely contribution to conversations about the kinds of working conditions that we, as a society, are—and are not—building for the future. . . .[it] reminds readers that decent jobs are not something that exist a priori. They must be made."

American Journal of Sociology
"Hustle and Gig vividly exposes the contradictions between the lofty promises of gig work for those with high social and cultural capital (e.g., Airbnb and Kitchensurfing workers) and the darker reality of many who struggle to make ends meet through platforms such as Uber and TaskRabbit."—Arne L. Kalleberg, author of Precarious Lives

"Hustle and Gig takes a smart, penetrating look at what’s happening in the platform economy—how it resembles an earlier industrial age when workers toiled long hours doing piecework for meager pay while lacking many basic protections. This book sheds a much-needed light onto some dark corners of the gig economy."—Steven Greenhouse, author of Beaten Down, Worked Up

"Reveals how the gig economy is organized in ways that actually serve to roll back protections for workers—it is a 'hustle.'"—Jennifer Silva, author of Coming Up Short

"Ravenelle demonstrates an understanding of both local and global instances of emotional labor and precarious workplace challenges. Readers from every walk of life will respond to these excellent connections."—Tamara R. Mose, author of The Playdate and Raising Brooklyn

"Upends the slick rhetoric of micro-entrepreneurship and flexibility to reveal the seamy underside of providers’ actual experiences—sexual harassment, uncompensated workplace injuries, client criminality, and extreme economic insecurity. These unforgettable narratives should reset the conversation about this new type of work."—Juliet Schor, author of Plenitude