The Many Faces of Platform Work – Panel Discussion on Wed 11 May
Time: Wednesday 11 May 2022 at 13-15 SUOMEKSI
Place: Tiedekulma (Yliopistonkatu 4, Helsinki)
Recording of the panel
Public discussion on platform work is often polarized either for or against it: Does platform work lead to the degradation of labour or offer opportunities for autonomous and independent work? Actually, platform work can take different forms. Work can be done as an entrepreneur, but to an increasing degree as a wage earner. Both knowledge workers and manual workers can do assignments or commissioned work through platforms.
What does platform work mean? What kind of platform work is being done in Finland? How should we regulate platform work – is there a risk that it will be regulated too heavily?
These and other questions will be discussed by experts in the panel The many faces of platform work. The open panel discussion is organised by The Finnish Association of Work Life Research (FAWORE), Turku Centre for Labour Studies (TCLS), University of Turku and Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki. The event is part of the seminar series Multifaceted Work, which celebrates the 30 years of FAWORE’s activities. The series will continue in autumn with a seminar on the development of multifaceted work and its funding.
We will have three expert panelists discussing the topic: senior researcher, adjunct professor Seppo Poutanen (University of Turku), research manager, adjunct professor Laura Seppänen (Finnish Institute of Occupational Health) and doctoral researcher Benta Mbare (University of Tampere).
FAWORE’s board member, chief specialist Meri Jalonen (LAB University of Applied Sciences) will act as the moderator of the panel.
The panel will be in English and you can listen to the panel at Tiedekulma. The event will be live streamed and recorded, so you can follow it online too.
Welcome!
The Finnish Association of Work Life Research (FAWORE)
Turku Centre for Labour Studies (TCLS), University of Turku
Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki
Seppo Poutanen is a senior researcher and adjunct professor in sociology at the University of Turku. His research areas include science sociology, research policy and innovation, economic sociology and social theory. In addition to his numerous finnish research and teaching tasks, he has strong international experience. Seppo has served as a visitor to several foreign universities, e.g. Harvard University and the London School of Economics. He has also worked as a researcher at the Academy of Finland and as director of a research project. Poutanen’s core areas of expertise include platform economy, digitalization and gendered science.
Laura Seppänen, Research Manager at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, has investigated both online and on-location platform work in a research consortium Smart Work in Platform Economy and is now leading a project Fair work on platforms (2020-2023). She is involved in a governmental program for Development of working life in Finland. Her most recent publication is Co-creation in Macrotask Knowledge Work on Online Labor Platforms in the Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies.
Benta Mbare is a doctoral researcher at Tampere University, undertaking a doctorate degree in Health Sciences. Her research focuses on occupational health psychology where she examines the multidimensional facets of psychosocial risks and stressors of on-location platform work (mainly food delivery platform work) in Finland and how it relates to the mental health and wellbeing of couriers through qualitative study approaches. In her Master’s thesis, she examined the psychosocial work environment of food delivery platform work in Helsinki and its association to the mental wellbeing of these platform food couriers with qualitative methods.