Beyond the Algorithm: Qualitative Insights for Gig Work Regulation

In Beyond the Algorithm: Qualitative Insights for Gig Work Regulation, Deepa Das Acevedo and a collection of scholars and experts show why government actors must go beyond mass surveys and data-scrubbing in order to truly understand the realities of gig work. The contributors draw on qualitative empirical research to reveal the narratives and real-life experiences that define gig work, and they connect these insights to policy debates being fought out in courts, town halls, and even in Congress itself. The book also bridges academic and non-academic worlds by drawing on the experiences of drivers, journalists, and workers' advocates who were among the first people to study gig work from the bottom up. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in gig work, the legal infrastructure surrounding it, and how that infrastructure can and must be improved.

Deepa Das Acevedo is a legal anthropologist and an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Alabama. Her scholarship draws on original fieldwork among gig workers, policymakers, and workers' advocates, and has been published in several law reviews. She co-chairs the Collaborative Research Network on Labor Rights of the Law and Society Association and chairs the Section on Law and Anthropology of the American Association of Law Schools.