14.09.2022COST Action "Platform Work Inclusion Living Lab"

Dr. Anton Fedosov, a postdoctoral researcher at the People and Computing Lab at IFI, has been nominated as a Management Committee member for Switzerland at COST Action CA21118 - Platform Work Inclusion Living Lab (P-WILL). 

COST Action

The European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) is an EU-funded, intergovernmental framework, which supports the creation of pan-European research and innovation interdisciplinary networks, called COST Actions, in all science fields.

Description of P-WILL COST Action

The platform economy (PE) has accelerated following the COVID-19 outbreak. Although several PE models exist, the PE predominant model is mostly characterised by poor working conditions, low pay, lack of social protection for workers, and increasing gender, racial and socioeconomic inequalities. 

The main objective of the Platform Work Inclusion Living Lab is to build a pan-european interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary multistakeholder network including policymakers, industry leaders, civil society organisations, designers, researchers, and the main initiatives happening at the international level, to foster the upsurge of alternative scenarios in the frame of platform work. 

P-WILL promotes the PE intersectional gender perspective and inclusion through increased well-being, economic justice, and rights for the traditionally excluded collectives (TEC) while aligning the PE with The EU Pillar of Social Rights and SDGs. 

The aims of P-WILL are:

• To discuss and critique current elements of the discourse on platform work, incorporating anintersectional feminist approach and proposing a richer and inclusive definition of the phenomenon. 
• To favour an interdisciplinary social and technical approach to PE. 
• To develop a deeper understanding of the impact of the expansion of the PE connected to COVID-19 on traditionally excluded collectives.
• To foster transdisciplinary PE action-oriented evidence-based outcomes closing the gap between society, science, industry and policymaking through co-creation of novel, bottom-up ideas to challenge and improve policymaking institutions recommendations, alternative platform design models and technical design guidelines. 
• To establish grounds for further research development heeding The European Pillar of Social Rights and SDGs, strengthening European research and innovation capacities.

More information about the P-WILL and its structure can be found here.