TICS

Funding: FWF, SNF, DFG (DACH project)
Amount of Funding: € 792,000 (RCE: € 188,000)
Duration: 10/2022 - 09/2025
Partners: University of Zurich, Europa-Universität Flensburg
Contact: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Anke Strüver

Description:
The emergence of digital work platforms is changing people's everyday lives in cities and influencing already existing patterns of social inequality. Platforms such as Care.com, Mjam or Tophelp are reorganizing patterns of work, service and consumption and thus socio-spatial structures in urban spaces. While previous research has primarily focused on crowdwork (e.g. Amazon MTurk), ride services (e.g. Uber) and accommodation (e.g. Airbnb), TICS analyzes the transformation of care services. Care services include cleaning private homes, caring for children and the elderly in the home environment, and delivering ready-made meals. Using feminist geographies as a theoretical framework, the project examines their influence on the spatial and social reorganization of urban societies. A qualitative methodology combining narrative interviews with mobile digital ethnography is used for this purpose. The three European cities of Vienna, Hamburg and Zurich serve as empirical examples.