Foreword Cecilia Poggi (AFD - Economic Assessment and
The articles presented address each a specific
Public Policy Department)
aspect of on-the-platform work, they do not cover
This article is part of a research partnership
literature shading light on who are the workers
(UNGS) for the period 2020-2021, seeking to
that engage in a platform, on their labour
produce and analyse some primary qualitative digital
conditions, as well as their perceptions about
labour
this type of insertion, by proposing a series of
platforms in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan
gender-sensitive
Area. The collaboration aims to explore some
produced
characteristics of workers using app-based
services.
It
delivery
does
so
by
and
project
qualitative
and
each occupation and an ad-hoc survey was
ride-hailing
producing
primary
The
focus groups were conducted with workers of
as those for domestic work, office repair food
its
analyses.
quantitative data. In-depth interviews and
platforms for the personal service sector, such services,
overall
contribution to a growing and dynamic body of
Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento
on
the
for platform work. Their value-added is the
Economía at the Instituto de Ciencias of the
data
for
occupations, nor do they question the demand
Public Policy Department and the Area de
quantitative
analyses
Argentinian labour force or for off-platform
between the AFD Economic Assessment and
and
wider
designed to collect quantitative data about
five
workers and their experience. The survey is
complementary articles that together give
based on a non-probabilistic sample with
an initial picture of how workers engage in
gender quotas per platform, seeking to ensure
this new work modality.
comparability
among
occupations
and
demographic groups. The timing of the data
In Argentina, the participation to the platform
collections over 2020-2021 make this one of the
economy is a recent but rapidly expanding
few
phenomenon. The severe recent economic
projects
across
the
globe
having
investigated the platform use variations at the
crisis and its reinforcement with the Covid-19
onset of the pandemic. Moreover, thanks to a
crisis have been destabilizing to standard work
research agreement with the ILO Country
relations, in an environment where informality
Office for Argentina, some articles have
is widespread and where gender inequalities
benefited in their analysis of an additional
are experienced across occupations. The high
dataset shared by the ILO.
rate of internet connectivity as well as the unstable economic conditions experienced in
The project articles are available on the AFD
the labour market provide a particularly
website (www.afd.fr/en/carte-des-
favourable environment for the expansion of
projets/platform-economy-buenos-aires-
the platform modality. The project develops
metropolitan-area-work-conditions-gender-
five articles inspecting various aspects of the
inequality) exploring the following topics:
platform economy, and it is considered an initial exploratory inquiry on the topic of on-
The first article investigates whether working
the-platform work.
through a digital platform increases labour registration in high-informality occupations.
5
