Platform Power and Worker Agency: A Socio-Technical Review of the Gig Economy
TL;DR
It is argued that platforms’ informational advantage over workers, especially with their capacity to dynamically reconfigure rules in real time, constitutes a distinctive form of platform power that calls for scholarly attention.
Abstract
The platform-mediated gig economy constitutes 4.4% to 12.5% of the global workforce. Understanding how platform design shapes working conditions, and how workers develop strategies to navigate platform constraints, is crucial to addressing challenges in this rapidly evolving sector. Following PRISMA guidelines, we examine 171 gig economy-related publications from 2019 to Nov. 2025, spanning algorithmic management systems, labor process theory, and workers’ insights. Employing a “best-fit” framework, we draw on Socio-technical Systems Theory and synthesize four strands of scholarship to consolidate findings from prior research. In doing so, we identify 46 technical mechanisms and five stakeholder relationships that have attracted particular attention in the existing literature. We further examine perception gaps among stakeholders and propose ethnographic research within platform firms as a promising avenue for uncovering the mechanisms through which these gaps are produced and sustained. We also argue that platforms’ informational advantage over workers, especially with their capacity to dynamically reconfigure rules in real time, constitutes a distinctive form of platform power that calls for scholarly attention.