Digital Dreamscapes: Digital Economies and the Future of Work
Everything is on fire, but everyone I love is doing beautiful things and trying to make life worth living, and I know I don’t have to believe in everything, but I believe in that.- Nikita Gill-
Dear Reader,
Warm greetings to you and welcome to this side of the internet. We are delighted to have you read from us.
As 2024 rolls in, The Nawi Collective would like to share with you our new area of exploration; Digital Economies and the Future of Work. Having grounded ourselves in the world of macro-level economics, our work here is going to focus on the ‘gig economy’ and the dynamics it presents for the future of work and women’s labour in Africa. In a world where digital technology permeates every aspect of our lives, we believe that understanding its implications and learning to navigate its complexities is more crucial than ever. We hope that this work will be an indispensable, immersive exploration into our technologically interwoven world, breaking new ground by centring our Pan-African feminist perspectives. So please journey with us as we share with you our thoughts, reflections, our fears, as well as our hopes, desires, and dreams.
When we speak about the "gig economy", think along the lines of Uber, Meta, etc companies that promise to connect freelancers with ‘employers’ who don't need or want to hire full-time employees. The gig economy jobs are increasingly being touted as a job solution, particularly for women, who can supposedly achieve the holy grail of true work-life balance by punctuating child care or domestic labor with the more flexible work offered by sharing services and apps. In fact, women are on track to be the majority of the workers in the gig economy. A study conducted in Nigeria, Kenya, and Cote d’Ivoire found that there are more women-owned businesses on social media (61%) than men (51%) and this is attributed to low entry barriers. Similarly, in 2021, Jumia Africa announced that 51% of the vendors on its platform are women and represented 33% of the total value of merchandise sold between 2019 and 2020. Globally, four out of ten workers on online and web-based platforms worldwide are women according to the ILO. If you did nothing but read business publications, this would seem like a feminist godsend promising women an opportunity to stay in the game while they start families, launch new businesses, or care for sick relatives and ‘more easily’ juggle the multiple roles and hats they have always worn.
As Jude Ellison writes, a viral story is just an isolated incident with a particularly attention-grabbing context, however, look at the way the broader trend deprives workers—and women in particular—of the safeguards built up over decades of labour negotiations and pressure for protective legislation. As "independent contractors," gig workers are not covered by minimum wage laws, or laws mandating reasonable work hours, nor are they normally allowed to unionise. They do not receive employer-provided health insurance, let alone benefits like parental leave or sick leave, they have precious little legal leverage in cases of unjust termination or discrimination, and they can't claim unemployment if they lose their "gigs"—yet the services can still refuse to work with them, and may track their performance by aggregating customer reviews, meaning that they must remain constantly, happily available for work, to protect their access to a job. The situation is worse for women, who are subject to more directly violent forms of workplace discrimination and violence, with women reporting that staying safe within the gig economy has become a full-time job. Without insurance or paid sick leave, women are less able to get the medical or psychological help they may need after violent altercations—and without the obligation to provide it, employers are less incentivised to come up with preventative security measures.
The tech industry that spawns these gig economy services has always suffered from a fundamental libertarian utopianism—a sense that genius, and corporations run by geniuses, can solve all the problems of society, including those traditionally solved by labour unions and/or government. Experts touting the gig economy's benefits for women are falling prey to a new form of false utopianism, touting apps as a way to resolve workplace complaints (lack of a liveable minimum wage, gender pay gap, adequate parental leave, lack of affordable childcare, general lack of respect or support for working women and mothers) that feminists have long tried to address by changing workplace policy. These are systemic and structural problems and resolving them would require us not only to pass new laws but actually to value women's social reproduction work.
So what is our offering?
We cannot refute that the fourth industrial revolution has been pivotal in enabling women and minoritised groups of people to be heard on a global scale, offering access and opportunities; thereby facilitating empowerment. The gig economy with all its digital extensions including the platform economy has not only flourished over the last decade, but it has also embraced and welcomed women into its fold. As we strive to evolve and fit into this new digitally mediated work eco-system, we reflect and ask ourselves questions such as: What are the working conditions like for African women engaging in gig work particularly location-based work in sectors such as ride-hailing, delivery, care, and domestic work, among others? To what extent can this be considered decent work and in what ways are gender inequalities and other systems of oppression replicated and reinforced such as those based on race, class, geographical location, migrant status, and coloniality? Can gig work be empowering for African women and support the realisation of their right to decent work, or is it simply the latest incarnation of a neoliberal neocolonial model that extracts labour and wealth from people and countries in the global South, particularly in Africa, based on a racist, sexist division of labour that thrives off the back of social reproduction. In the context of gender-based violence and corporate impunity and vitally, how are women workers organising to defend and claim their rights in this new technology-based world of work and how are they innovating new forms of organising and resistance?
As we consider these questions it is important to note the wider global context in which the emergence of the gig economy is taking place. Three to four decades of structural adjustment policies entailing market liberalisation, privatisation, and deregulation along with a lack of policy space to invest in agriculture, industrial sectors, and social care infrastructure had given rise to a crisis in decent work opportunities, particularly in African countries with large youth populations and particularly for women. As such globally some 2 billion people work informally, 93% of whom are based in what the ILO defines as emerging and developing countries with women over-represented in the most precarious forms of work. On top of that the pandemic pushed gender equality gains back by a whole generation with women disproportionately impacted by job and livelihood losses, taking on a greater share of unpaid care and domestic work, while the pandemic of violence against women also intensified.
The situation for women has been further compounded by spiraling food costs and fuel costs, debt crises, and renewed rounds of austerity not to mention the impacts of the climate crisis that are being felt more acutely by African women. And as workers everywhere continue to struggle, the power and profits of many multinational corporations has intensified with levels of wealth inequality reaching staggering new levels. According to Oxfam nearly two-thirds of the 42 trillion dollars in new wealth created since 2020 covering the period that the pandemic was at its height was appropriated by the richest one percent. For example, even as the pandemic destroyed the world’s economies, the personal wealth of Silicon Valley Czar, Jeff Bezos, increased by $40 billion. Meanwhile, according to the International Trades Union Congress, worker rights have been in decline consistently now for nine consecutive years with harassment and violent repression against workers and trade unionists appallingly common.
So all these factors raise critical questions about the genuine choices that African women have for decent work when opting to work for platform companies. It is also important to consider how this agenda links to wider questions around macroeconomic justice for women with respect to taxation, investments in social reproduction, corporate accountability, and where the gig economy fits into the Pan-African feminist agenda. To articulate our demands, we borrow the words of Leah Eryenyu– we will draw inspiration from the pluriverse of knowledge from the south to the north, from the academy to the trenches, from picket lines to factory assembly floors, and from elders around fireplaces to Nobel Laureates. Ours is to re-member our history to our current and onwards to our future to make sure that as we move, we don't follow a pathway that is apolitical and ahistorical.
We therefore invite you to journey with us as we explore this digital realm and co-create digital landscapes reflecting African cosmologies and Pan-African worldviews. The Nawi Collective is part of a small but growing community of African feminists doing the heavy work of imagining, dreaming, and envisioning alternative economies centred on care in ways that make sense for African women and persons othered by dimensions of inequality. We would like to see a world where African women and people from all walks of life live happy and fulfilled lives when the macroeconomics spaces they occupy are consistently reimagined and deconstructed to include their narratives.
If you would like to connect with us, please reach me via joanita@nawi.africa
In Revolutionary Love and Solidarity,
Joey
About the author
Najjuko Joanita (aka Joey) is a Pan-Africanist and feminist activist dedicated to the work of weaving new worlds. She is interested in challenging and dismantling structural inequalities in a world increasingly controlled by plutocrats, deploying intersectional feminist tools of inquiry to examine and understand systemic injustices and their manifestations. Najjuko’s work premises on the intersection of economic exploitation and gender oppression and its implication for the achievement of broader women’s rights. In this regard, her work focuses on shifting public perceptions and challenging structural limitations to African women and persons othered by dimensions of inequality within macro-level economic decisions. Najjuko is invested in efforts that seek to undo and reconstruct colonial imaginations and is passionate about building and organising sustainable development models that center the needs of communities across Africa. When not engaged with organisational work, you will find Najjuko in spaces of joy, excitement, creativity, wellness, and imagination; amongst those who constantly create beautiful trouble.
Najjuko is currently leading the work on Digital Economies and the Future of Work at The Nawi Collective.