8th Conference of the International Network on Digital Labor (INDL)

9:00 - 9:30 (30min)

Welcome address

(Venue A) Aula Magna S. Cristina

Director of Sociology Department Univ. Bologna, INDL-8 organizers (Federico Chicchi, Marco Marrone, Daniele Di Nunzio), DiPLab scholarship representative (Paola Tubaro)

9:30 - 10:25 (55min)

The Hydra of Artificial Intelligence: Labor Devaluation and Erosion of Human Agency

(Venue A) Aula Magna S. Cristina

Sarah T. Roberts

https://indl-8.sciencesconf.org/data/program/STRoberts.pdf

10:25 - 10:55 (30min)

Coffee break

(Venue A) Cloister

10:55 - 11:50 (55min)

Property rights and monetisation of the personal data of platform workers

(Venue A) Aula Magna S. Cristina

María Luz Rodríguez Fernández

https://indl-8.sciencesconf.org/data/program/MLRF.pdf

12:00 - 13:00 (1h)

Legal frameworks, regulatory initiatives, and institutional responses

(Venue A) Room A S. Cristina

Chair: Myriam Raymond

› Platform work international governance from the bottom-up: assessing cloudworkers' challenges and demands in the context of the ILO international convention - Jonas Valente, University of Oxford 12:00-12:15 (15min)

› Regulating AI in the Workplace: A Critique of the EU AI Act and the Platform Work Directive Through a Workerist Lens - Alexandros Minotakis, University College Dublin [Dublin] 12:15-12:30 (15min)

› From Workers' Rights to Digital Borders: The Home Office's New Role in Britain's Platform Economy - Stefano Piemontese, University of Birmingham [Birmingham] - Nando Sigona, University of Birmingham [Birmingham] 12:30-12:45 (15min)

12:00 - 13:00 (1h)

Emerging forms of individual and collective action in digitally mediated work

(Venue A) Room B S. Cristina

Chair: Paola Tubaro

› Not entirely dead labour: worker-led automation in software production - James Steinhoff, University College Dublin [Dublin] 12:00-12:15 (15min)

› Content Creators and Collective Representation: Emerging Forms of Resistance in the Creator Economy - Matafu Antonino, Università degli studi di Catania = University of Catania 12:15-12:30 (15min)

› Do Women Resist? Hidden Transcript and Alternative Resistance of Women Gig Workers in Indonesia - Nabiyla Risfa Izzati, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Queen Mary University of London 12:30-12:45 (15min)

12:00 - 13:00 (1h)

Algorithmic management and labor control

(Venue A) Room C S. Cristina

Chair: Federico Chicchi

› Fact-Checking as Digital Labour: Ethics, Politics, and Big Tech's False Framing of Online Fact-Checking - Aishik Saha, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens 12:00-12:15 (15min)

› From Taylorism to Algorithmic Management: A multi-sector analysis of technology, control and worker experiences - Uma Rani, International Labour Organization - Morgan Williams, International Labour Organization 12:15-12:30 (15min)

› Generative Artificial Intelligence in the publishing and information sector in Italy: present and future challenges for trade unions and workers' right - Eliana Como, Fondazione Di Vittorio 12:30-12:45 (15min)

13:00 - 14:00 (1h)

Lunch + Poster Session

(Venue A) Cloister

https://indl-8.sciencesconf.org/data/program/Posters_website_5Sept2025.pdf

14:00 - 15:45 (1h45)

Gender and digital labor

(Venue A) Room A S. Cristina

Chair: Mariana Fernández Massi

› Motherhood at the margins: ASHAs and the digital labour of antenatal care work - Neha Gupta, Tata Institute of Social Sciences 14:00-14:15 (15min)

› Click-work as Care Work: Ethico-political Contestations Through Care - Deepshikha Sharma, University of Twente 14:15-14:30 (15min)

› “You Got Into This Job Too?”: Gendered Encounters of Women Couriers in Platform-Based Delivery Work in Turkey - Tugce Bidav, King‘s College London - Funda Ustek Spilda, King‘s College London 14:30-14:45 (15min)

› Regulating webcamming as platform work – A focus on algorithms to forget about sex... and work - Salomé Lannier, University of Luxembourg 14:45-15:00 (15min)

› From Exploitation to Resistance: Migrant Women Contesting Digital Labor Through Feminist Strategies - Lara Vieira Silveira, Carl Von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg = Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg 15:00-15:15 (15min)

14:00 - 15:45 (1h45)

Workers' resistance to algorithms

(Venue A) Room B S. Cristina

Chair: James Steinhoff

› "Breaking the apps" once again: An analysis of the 2020 and 2025 food delivery workers' strikes in Brazil - Lucas Souza, CREST 14:00-14:15 (15min)

› Negotiating Autonomy in a Dual Space: How Ride-Hailing Drivers' Agency is formatted by Digital Intermediation - Mathilde Abel, Centre de recherche en économie et statistique (CREST) - Patrick Dieuaide, ICEE - Intégration et Coopération dans l'Espace Européen - Etudes Européennes - EA 2291 14:15-14:30 (15min)

› From micro-resistance to movement: How gig workers are fighting back against platform power - Bonini Tiziano, University of Siena - Emiliano Treré, University of Valencia 14:30-14:45 (15min)

› From Resistance to Imbrication: Algorithmic Practices and the Reproduction of Inequalities in Food Delivery Work - Francesco Bonifacio, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano 14:45-15:00 (15min)

› Negotiating Control: Algorithmic Management and Labour Agency in China - Yiran Yue, University College Dublin [Dublin] 15:00-15:15 (15min)

14:00 - 16:00 (2h)

Platformisation and precariousness

(Venue A) Room C S. Cristina

Chair: Jonas Valente

› From Relational Contracts to Market Mechanisms: Entropy Hedging and the Limits of Platform Substitution in High-Risk Migration Systems - Tutan Ahmed, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur 14:00-14:15 (15min)

› Behind the screens, beyond the shelves: a comparative assessment of digital labor in content creation and Amazon warehouses - Arianna Petrosino, Università di Napoli Federico II - Camilla Volpe, Università degli Studi di Milano 14:15-14:30 (15min)

› Platform Last-Mile Logistics in the Favela of Cidade de Deus, Rio de Janeiro - Federico De Stavola, YIRG Project (University of Bergamo) - Gianmarco Peterlongo, Università statale di Milano 14:30-14:45 (15min)

› Platform Labour and the Indian State: A New Interface? - Debopriya Shome, University of Bristol [Bristol] 14:45-15:00 (15min)

› Many registered and few elected : How homecare platforms of intermediation structure inequalities in access to employment - Léa Lima, Laboratoire interdisciplinaire pour la sociologie économique 15:00-15:15 (15min)

› Algorithmic Exclusion and the Logic of Platformization: The Case of iFood in a Brazilian Metropolitan Area - Fabio Tozi, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais = Federal University of Minas Gerais [Belo Horizonte, Brazil] 15:15-15:30 (15min)

14:00 - 15:45 (1h45)

Clients and employers

(Venue B) Room di Virgilio

Chair: Marco Marrone

› The human cogs in the AI machine: Experiences of data annotation and content moderation workers in the BPO sector in India and Kenya - Uma Rani, International Labour Organization - Morgan Williams, International Labour Organization 14:00-14:15 (15min)

› Digital colonialism and labor inequality: a discourse analysis of outsourcing practices in AI data processing - Salguero Pedro, University of Valladolid 14:15-14:30 (15min)

› How do platforms pay data workers? Insights from Remotasks Plus Venezuela - Paola Tubaro, Centre de Recherche en Économie et STatistique (CREST), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 14:30-14:45 (15min)

› Riding with the Enemy: Client Identities and the Legal Making of Counter-Alliances - Maria Giulia Arciero, Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza" = Sapienza University [Rome] 14:45-15:00 (15min)

› The Delivery Worker in Platform Companies' Discourse: Representation Strategies on Digital Platforms - Romina López Concha, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso - Guillermo Rivera Aguilera, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso 15:00-15:15 (15min)

16:00 - 16:30 (30min)

Coffee break

(Venue A) Cloister

16:30 - 17:30 (1h)

The Platform Work Grey Zone - Special Panel

(Venue A) Room A S. Cristina

Chair: Donna Kesselman

› “The Platform Work Grey Zone: Epistemology and Workers' Resistance North and South” - Donna Kesselman, Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12 16:30-16:45 (15min)

› Food delivery platforms in Belgium: a contested grey zone of employment - Brugière Fabien, Sociétés, acteurs, gouvernement en Europe 16:45-17:00 (15min)

16:30 - 18:00 (1h30)

Emerging forms of individual and collective action in digitally mediated work

(Venue A) Room B S. Cristina

Chair: Lucas Santos Souza

› Crafting Visibility and Solidarity: Professional and Collective Digital Identity as Everyday Resistance on Micro-tasking Platforms - Myriam RAYMOND, GRANEM, Institut d'Administration des Entreprises (IAE) - Angers, Digital Platform Labor Research Group 16:30-16:45 (15min)

› 'AI Workers of the World, Respite!' - Will Berrington, University of Warwick [Coventry] 16:45-17:00 (15min)

› Alternative Platforms in the Cloud Computing Landscape: Challenges and Opportunities - Filippo Greggi, Unité de recherche ACT (Analyse des Crises et Transitions) 17:00-17:15 (15min)

› A new form of 'racing to the bottom'? - Data Work, globally conditioned competition and challenges for international organization - Laurenz Sachenbacher, Weizenbaum Institut, Technische Universität Berlin - Camilla Salim Wagner, Weizenbaum Institut, Technische Universität Berlin 17:15-17:30 (15min)

16:30 - 17:30 (1h)

Legal frameworks, regulatory initiatives, and institutional responses

(Venue A) Room C S. Cristina

Chair: Funda Ustek Spilda

› Power Struggles Surrounding AI-Powered Digital Technologies in the EU Manufacturing Landscape: The Present and Future of Labour Rights, Governance and Social Dialogue - López Cañellas Naira, Technological University of Dublin 16:30-16:45 (15min)

› Social Dialogue and the State's Role in Regulating Digital Labor in Chile: Between Institutional Constraints and Emerging Strategies - Daina Bellido de Luna, Daina Bellido de Luna Mayea 16:45-17:00 (15min)

› Making Data Move: Action Research on Data Portability in the Gig Economy - Martijn Arets, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences 17:00-17:15 (15min)

16:30 - 18:15 (1h45)

Psycho-social and health-related risks

(Venue B) Room di Virgilio

Chair: Adio Dinika

› Precarity Through Affective Labour in Content Production: Brazilian Live Streamers in the Global South - Amanda Biazzi, Universidade Estadual de Maringá [Brasil] = State University of Maringá [Brazil] = Université d'État de Maringá [Brésil] 16:30-16:45 (15min)

› Day by Day – A Daily Diary Exploration of Microworkers' Working Conditions and Well-Being - Sofie Schuller, Universiteit Utrecht / Utrecht University [Utrecht] 16:45-17:00 (15min)

› The Humans Behind the Filter: Uncovering the Costs and Consequences of Content Moderators in Kenya - Søren Bøgh Sørensen, Copenhagen Business School; Ephantus Kanyugi, Data Labellers Association 17:00-17:15 (15min)

› Digitalization and occupational health prevention in the network economy: old and new challenges - Daniele Di Nunzio, Fondazione Di Vittorio - Elisa Errico, Fondazione Di Vittorio 17:15-17:30 (15min)

› Promoting Wellbeing with Top- and Bottom-up Strategies: Microwork Conditions and Playful Work Design - Yuri Scharp, Universiteit Utrecht / Utrecht University [Utrecht] 17:30-17:45 (15min)

19:00 - 20:00 (1h)

City Tour - Bologna and the social movements

Archivio storico dei movimenti, via Avesella 5a, Bologna. This event will be cancelled in case of poor weather conditions.

Programme