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The Global Gig Economy [ONLINE]
Full Tuition: $340 — Sliding-scale options are available in the drop-down menu. To pay in installments, choose to pay with PayPal or Klarna at check out.
Instructor: Leigh Campoamor | 5-weeks | Wednesdays | April 8-May 6 | 7:00-9:00 PM ET | ONLINE
Side hustle. Freelancing. Temp work. Independent contracting. Gig work. These are all just different words for the same old capitalist trend. But over the last 20 years, we’ve seen something new as companies promote the gig economy as something desirable through language such as “flexibility” and “autonomy.” By romanticizing gig work, these corporations hide the ways that they maximize their own profit by transferring risks and responsibilities onto workers. This change marks an entirely new type of economy. In this class, we will look at the gig economy as something that connects service workers and consumers through online platforms, and we’ll interrogate what it reveals about the world we live in today.
The gig economy invites questions about capitalism itself: How does the gig economy both clarify and obscure the purpose of work? How does it transform our relationships to consumption, or our experiences of time and space? And what can we learn when studying the gig economy as a global phenomenon? Together we’ll look at how colonial histories, involving resource extraction and forced labor, influence the ways the gig economy has taken shape in the global south, taking care to ask how and to what end the gig economy co-opts the “informal” economic practices of those who have long depended, for instance, on street vending and other self-made hustles for income.
The gig economy unites workers as varied as delivery drivers, tour guides, university professors, and freelance photographers the world over, crossing lines of cultural capital. This means we ultimately have to ask if the problem is the gig economy itself or the broader economic system that engendered it. Can labor organizing around the gig economy offer unique opportunities for cross-class movement-building?
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SLIDING SCALE TUITION
Full tuition is the cost per-student of running the class. If you choose a tier below full tuition, you are receiving a discount. If you choose to make a donation in addition to full tuition, you are helping to cover the cost for students who are not able to pay the full amount.
The mid-level tier is a discounted rate for people whose household income is at or above living wage but who have limited discretionary income.
The low-level tier and the full-scholarship tier are for people whose household income is below living wage or who need extra assistance to meet their needs.
SCHOLARSHIPS
Through our fundraising efforts, we are able to offer three full scholarships per class. The full-scholarship tier is a nonrefundable offering. Each student may only take one full-scholarship class at a time. Because our scholarship funding is limited, if a student selects multiple overlapping classes at the full-scholarship level, they will be disenrolled from all classes. Scholarships are not available for asynchronous enrollment.
All sliding-scale and scholarship needs are self-assessed, and we will never request or require proof of need.
RECORDINGS
Recordings will be provided for asynchronous students. Enrolled students who miss class sessions may request to receive a maximum of two recordings to make-up missed sessions.
ASYNCHRONOUS ENROLLMENT
Classes are discussion-based and designed to be taken synchronously. However, we do offer an asynchronous enrollment option for most online classes if you need to follow along at your own pace. Recordings are only available to students who enroll to take the course asynchronously. We are not able to offer scholarships for asynchronous enrollment.
Please see our FAQ for more information, including installment plans, refund policy, and sick and inclement weather policy.
Full Tuition: $340 — Sliding-scale options are available in the drop-down menu. To pay in installments, choose to pay with PayPal or Klarna at check out.
Instructor: Leigh Campoamor | 5-weeks | Wednesdays | April 8-May 6 | 7:00-9:00 PM ET | ONLINE
Side hustle. Freelancing. Temp work. Independent contracting. Gig work. These are all just different words for the same old capitalist trend. But over the last 20 years, we’ve seen something new as companies promote the gig economy as something desirable through language such as “flexibility” and “autonomy.” By romanticizing gig work, these corporations hide the ways that they maximize their own profit by transferring risks and responsibilities onto workers. This change marks an entirely new type of economy. In this class, we will look at the gig economy as something that connects service workers and consumers through online platforms, and we’ll interrogate what it reveals about the world we live in today.
The gig economy invites questions about capitalism itself: How does the gig economy both clarify and obscure the purpose of work? How does it transform our relationships to consumption, or our experiences of time and space? And what can we learn when studying the gig economy as a global phenomenon? Together we’ll look at how colonial histories, involving resource extraction and forced labor, influence the ways the gig economy has taken shape in the global south, taking care to ask how and to what end the gig economy co-opts the “informal” economic practices of those who have long depended, for instance, on street vending and other self-made hustles for income.
The gig economy unites workers as varied as delivery drivers, tour guides, university professors, and freelance photographers the world over, crossing lines of cultural capital. This means we ultimately have to ask if the problem is the gig economy itself or the broader economic system that engendered it. Can labor organizing around the gig economy offer unique opportunities for cross-class movement-building?
—
SLIDING SCALE TUITION
Full tuition is the cost per-student of running the class. If you choose a tier below full tuition, you are receiving a discount. If you choose to make a donation in addition to full tuition, you are helping to cover the cost for students who are not able to pay the full amount.
The mid-level tier is a discounted rate for people whose household income is at or above living wage but who have limited discretionary income.
The low-level tier and the full-scholarship tier are for people whose household income is below living wage or who need extra assistance to meet their needs.
SCHOLARSHIPS
Through our fundraising efforts, we are able to offer three full scholarships per class. The full-scholarship tier is a nonrefundable offering. Each student may only take one full-scholarship class at a time. Because our scholarship funding is limited, if a student selects multiple overlapping classes at the full-scholarship level, they will be disenrolled from all classes. Scholarships are not available for asynchronous enrollment.
All sliding-scale and scholarship needs are self-assessed, and we will never request or require proof of need.
RECORDINGS
Recordings will be provided for asynchronous students. Enrolled students who miss class sessions may request to receive a maximum of two recordings to make-up missed sessions.
ASYNCHRONOUS ENROLLMENT
Classes are discussion-based and designed to be taken synchronously. However, we do offer an asynchronous enrollment option for most online classes if you need to follow along at your own pace. Recordings are only available to students who enroll to take the course asynchronously. We are not able to offer scholarships for asynchronous enrollment.
Please see our FAQ for more information, including installment plans, refund policy, and sick and inclement weather policy.