Alex Wood
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alexjwoodsociology.bsky.social
Alex Wood
@alexjwoodsociology.bsky.social
Cambridge Economic Sociologist. Researching and teaching digital technology, work, power, and capitalism. Book: 'Despotism On Demand' https://academic.oup.com/cornell-scholarship-online/book/37473 https://research.sociology.cam.ac.uk/profile/alex-wood
Pinned
Me discussing our new @wesjnl.bsky.social
article:

"Beyond the ‘Gig Economy’: Towards Variable Experiences of Job Quality in Platform Work"

Read it here: doi.org/10.1177/0950...
This is actually a surprisingly good write up of our research by the Mail who also approached Uber and Deliveroo for comment www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/...
The misery of being a delivery driver in Britain revealed in new study
If you use apps such as Deliveroo and Uber, you might want to think twice about giving the worker a bad review.
www.dailymail.co.uk
June 3, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Write up of our @wesjnl.bsky.social article "Beyond the ‘Gig Economy’: Towards Variable Experiences of Job Quality in Platform Work" phys.org/news/2025-06...
Majority of riders and drivers in UK 'gig economy' suffer anxiety over ratings and pay, study suggests
Some two‑thirds of riders and drivers for food delivery and ride‑hailing apps in the UK may work in fear of "unfair feedback" and experience anxiety over sudden changes to working hours, a new survey ...
phys.org
June 3, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Me discussing our new @wesjnl.bsky.social
article:

"Beyond the ‘Gig Economy’: Towards Variable Experiences of Job Quality in Platform Work"

Read it here: doi.org/10.1177/0950...
June 3, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Our article "Beyond the ‘Gig Economy’: Towards Variable Experiences of Job Quality in Platform Work" has been published by 'Work, Employment and Society'. With Nick Martindale and @brendanburchell.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1177/0950...
June 3, 2025 at 9:08 AM
Exited to discuss our Gig Rights Project findings that platform workers want labour rights, trade unions and works councils with Justin Madders MP, Minister for Employment Rights, today.

Read the research here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
June 2, 2025 at 8:40 AM
Great new article by @Jess Brand and @linadencik.bsky.social on how platform businesses strategies are impacting worker identity @datajusticelab.bsky.social
May 29, 2025 at 11:20 AM
A beautiful day at Darwin College for reading Durand’s ‘How Silicon Valley Unleashed Techo-feudalism’
May 29, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Reposted by Alex Wood
What can India’s emerging gig worker unions teach us about labour organising & welfare in the digital age?

Thrilled about this new open-access paper with @islandexpress
in @compchange.bsky.social

Read: doi.org/10.1177/1024...

It's packed with ideas. A thread of it's key interventions:
May 22, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Reposted by Alex Wood
1. We argue that emergent unions like Connect_IFAT
and TGPWU in India's gig and platform sector aren’t just 'new' unions & orgs. They're part of a longer history of formal & informal labour struggles, pulling from Reena Agarwala's 1st, 2nd & 3rd waves of legal empowerment.
May 22, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Reposted by Alex Wood
6.And we set them up globally.
From recent work by Umney et al. @digitcentre.bsky.social
to @alexjwoodsociology.bsky.social
and others', we attempt to situate Indian gig worker organising in a wider international conversation. There are patterns, but also crucial divergences
May 22, 2025 at 8:42 AM
In Parliament to discuss protecting gig workers in the age of AI. I’ll be advocating for labour rights, unions and codetermination via works councils. Read the research below
May 7, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Reposted by Alex Wood
Meanwhile, Sharon Osbourne thinks telling people about Israeli war crimes at Coachella "compromised its moral and spiritual integrity”....
April 27, 2025 at 11:32 AM
Pleased to see that Michael Burawoy's important article 'Why and how should sociologists speak out on Palestine?' has been posthumously published by @sociologicalreview.bsky.social journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
April 7, 2025 at 3:10 PM
The 'responsible choice' for Rachel Reeves and the Labour Party is to rise taxes those with broadest shoulders not cut benefits for the vulnerable. Reeves is easily the worst thing to have happened to the Labour Party since the Gang of Four.
March 26, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Reposted by Alex Wood
I defended my PhD thesis on Friday. Thanks to the opponents, Trine P. Larsen and @alexjwoodsociology.bsky.social, for your thorough reading, relevant and challenging questions, and for very interesting discussions.
March 24, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Was a pleasure to read and examine @sigurdoppegaard.bsky.social’s excellent thesis.
I defended my PhD thesis on Friday. Thanks to the opponents, Trine P. Larsen and @alexjwoodsociology.bsky.social, for your thorough reading, relevant and challenging questions, and for very interesting discussions.
March 24, 2025 at 4:49 PM
What’s the point of the Labour Party? Its refusal to raise tax on the rich, is not only doing untold harm to the vulnerable but is opening the door to Reform. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
All UK families ‘to be worse off by 2030’ as poor bear the brunt, new data warns
Keir Starmer has been dealt a fresh blow to his living standards pledge in advance of the spring statement
www.theguardian.com
March 23, 2025 at 6:59 AM
Reposted by Alex Wood
Agnieszka Piasna on the relationship between #digitalisation and #JobQuality at our recent #FutureOfWork conference

Conference recordings 🔗 etui.org/Z8T
Digitalisation topic page 🔗 etui.org/Z6Y
March 17, 2025 at 9:26 AM
This year's @camsociology.bsky.social Yr 10-13 Photograph Competition 2025 is open on the theme of 'Real Utopias'. Winning student & school receive £100 each & an invitation to visit the University of Cambridge (online for schools outside UK) www.sociology.cam.ac.uk/photo-compet...
Yr 10-13 Photograph Competition 2025 Entry | Department of Sociology
The Sociology department is now accepting entries to their yearly photography competition. This year the theme will be Real Utopias. The term 'real utopias' was coined by Sociologist Erik Olin Wright ...
www.sociology.cam.ac.uk
March 13, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Reposted by Alex Wood
This sounds really cool. Evidence of divergences among platform workers in job quality reporting in different sectors 👇
'Beyond the ‘gig economy’: towards variable experiences of job quality in platform work'

An article I wrote with Nick Martindale and Brendan Burchell has been accepted by @wesjnl.bsky.social

Watch this space....
March 12, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Reposted by Alex Wood
'Beyond the ‘gig economy’: towards variable experiences of job quality in platform work'

An article I wrote with Nick Martindale and Brendan Burchell has been accepted by @wesjnl.bsky.social

Watch this space....
March 11, 2025 at 2:13 PM
'Beyond the ‘gig economy’: towards variable experiences of job quality in platform work'

An article I wrote with Nick Martindale and Brendan Burchell has been accepted by @wesjnl.bsky.social

Watch this space....
March 11, 2025 at 2:13 PM