Call for Papers

Workshop: The gig economy and platform workers in the Middle East and North Africa

The Europe and the World Centre at the University of Liverpool, invites interested scholars to apply for two day workshop which will take place at the University of Liverpool Campus on the 1st and 2nd June.

This interdisciplinary workshop investigates how the gig economy has transformed labour relations in the Middle East and North Africa. It focuses on the challenges and opportunities that digital platforms offer to labour markets in the region while precarity and informality jeopardise workers.

The workshop calls for papers that broaden the analysis of the so-called “gig economy” beyond a mere economic lens, by bringing together multi-disciplinary insights and approaches from politics, sociology, political economy, digital anthropology, and development studies.

Topics of interest may include:

  1. Governing digital markets: laws and regulations on “gig labour”
  2. Artificial intelligence and surveillance over gig workers
  3. Gig workers’ struggles and trade unions
  4. Feminist perspectives on platform labour
  5. Migrant workers and the gig economy

Proposals from PhD candidates and Early Career Researchers are especially encouraged. In order to foster inclusivity and allow access to scholars from the MENA region and local academic institutions, the workshop will be hosted on a hybrid basis. Limited financial support is also available for PhDs and ECRs travelling from other areas of the UK.

How to apply

Please submit an abstract of a maximum 300 words and a short bio of a maximum 50 words to Dr Stella Morgana by 30th March 2023.

Further Information

For further information please contact Dr Stella Morgana.