Volatile Fragility: New Employment Forms and Disrupted Employment Protection in the New Economy
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Geschwister Scholl Institute of Political Science, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, 80538 Munich, Germany
2
School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310007, China
3
Institute of East Asian Studies, University Duisburg-Essen, 47057 Duisburg, Germany
4
Institute for Sociology, University Duisburg-Essen, 47057 Duisburg, Germany
5
Center for Social Security Studies, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(5), 1531; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17051531
Received: 27 January 2020
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Revised: 18 February 2020
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Accepted: 24 February 2020
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Published: 27 February 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rethinking Work in the Digital Era to Protect the Environment and Promote Health)
This research is based on empirical surveys conducted in two Chinese cities, Beijing and Chengdu, which examine employment relationships, labor protection and social protection in the new digital economy. Through these theoretically informed surveys on various forms of employment via online platforms, we have found that the organizational principles and functional patterns of employment have profoundly transformed in the epoch of digitalization. The traditional employment relationship characterized by written contracts with clearly defined entitlements and obligations for employers and employees have been increasingly substituted by new volatile, fluid and fragile employment forms, softening the labor rights and social rights of “digital employees” and strengthening social control over them through online evaluation systems supported by smart phones and apps. The employees engaged in the online sharing economy have become more individualized and atomized than ever before, resulting in the emergence of an unorganized and disenfranchised “digital working class”.
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Keywords:
digital age; employment; labor; protection; volatility; fragility
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MDPI and ACS Style
Chen, B.; Liu, T.; Wang, Y. Volatile Fragility: New Employment Forms and Disrupted Employment Protection in the New Economy. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 1531. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17051531
AMA Style
Chen B, Liu T, Wang Y. Volatile Fragility: New Employment Forms and Disrupted Employment Protection in the New Economy. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020; 17(5):1531. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17051531
Chicago/Turabian StyleChen, Bin, Tao Liu, and Yingqi Wang. 2020. "Volatile Fragility: New Employment Forms and Disrupted Employment Protection in the New Economy" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17, no. 5: 1531. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17051531
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