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Paper Short Abstract:

The precarity faced by platform workers across the world cannot be addressed by regulation alone. The (spatial) interventions of creative practitioners are key to mitigating the isolation and atomisation experienced both inside and beyond the gig economy.

Paper Abstract:

In Melbourne, 90 percent of food delivery riders are male, 70 percent are aged under 30, and only ten percent are Australian citizens (Snapshot: On Demand Food Delivery Riders, Young Workers Centre/Transport Workers Union). As industries prone to abuse and underpayment, both delivery and rideshare have seen the recent introduction of regulations and support services intended to mitigate precarious conditions. Yet such measures do little to address the isolation and atomisation commonly experienced by these workers, which is where creative practice can help.

To address experiences, I established the Gig Workers’ Hub, an initiative offering gig workers a space in which to meet one another, receive support, and access much needed amenities such as toilets and power points. Using the development of the Hub as a case study, this presentation will explore the following questions: How does the ‘doing’ of a creative practitioner differ from that of an activist? How can these action-oriented modes of practice inflect the more methodical and reflective types of research, and vice versa? And how can design both problematise and solve issues concerning marginalisation, globalisation, and precarity? In addressing these questions, I will reflect on the difficulties I have faced in simultaneously working to develop creative interventions, produce visual representations, conduct ethnographic research, mediate relationships between stakeholders, and foster agency amongst precarious research participants.