The Duality of Global Online Labour Platforms as Restrictive-expansive Sites of Workplace Learning and Skill Development

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

12 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The paper analyses global online labour platforms (OLPs) through the lens of the Expansive-Restrictive Learning Environments framework. The framework articulates a set of structural factors that enable or constrain workplace learning and development. The paper draws on multistakeholder, mixed-method empirical data to illustrate how OLPs are emerging as learning environments, where new and reconfigured skills, learning practices, and new forms of learning support emerge in response to the radically distributed and fragmented nature of this work. Against portrayals of OLPs as places of deskilling work devoid of learning opportunities, the paper contributes a more nuanced understanding of the duality of OLPs as simultaneously restrictive and expansive. Three dualities of OLPs emerge from the study: (i) their espoused vision restricts organisational support for workforce development, yet stimulates self-directed learning; (ii) their enacted workplace curriculum is patchy and opaque, yet offers novel structural features supporting learning and development; (iii) workplace learning practices in OLPs are autonomous, yet not atomised. The paper illustrates how structure and individual agency interact in OLPs to create and configure learning opportunities for workers and informs practitioners about the current learning and development features and practices in OLPs.
Original languageEnglish
JournalInternational Journal of Training and Development
Volume28
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)315-334
Number of pages20
ISSN1360-3736
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2024

Bibliographical note

Published online: 26 April 2024.

Cite this