Between a rock and a hard place: Freedom, flexibility, precarity and vulnerability in the gig economy in Africa

TLDR

Digital platforms are transforming work, enabling remote jobs that reach low‑income regions and are promoted as a development strategy. The study examines the development implications of Africa’s gig economy on labour. The authors conducted a four‑year study of 65 workers across five African countries. Gig work brings jobs to low‑income, high‑unemployment regions and affects workers through four dimensions—freedom, flexibility, precarity, and vulnerability—forming a continuum that better explains their conditions.

Abstract

The world of work is changing. Communications technologies and digital platforms have enabled some types of work to be delivered from anywhere in the world by anyone with a computer and an internet connection. This digitally-mediated work brings jobs to parts of the world traditionally characterized by low incomes and high unemployment rates. As such, it has been touted by governments, third-sector organizations, and the private sector as a novel strategy of economic development. Drawing on a four-year study with 65 workers in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and Uganda, we examine the development implications of the gig economy on labour in Africa. We offer four analytical development dimensions through which platform-based remote work impacts the lives and livelihoods of African workers, i.e. freedom, flexibility, precarity and vulnerablity. We argue that these dimensions should be understood in a continuum to better explain the working conditions and lives of workers in the gig economy.