RT Journal Article
T1 A taxonomy of business models of digital care platforms in Spain
A1 Rodríguez-Modroño, Paula
K1 Care economy
K1 Care work
K1 Digital labour platform
K1 Domestic workers
K1 Platform economy
K1 Platform work
AB In the last few years, the proliferation of digital labour platforms has led to the transformation of business models and labour relations in an increasing number of economic activities, including highly feminized and informal traditional sectors, such as care and domestic work. Drawing on an analysis of 37 digital care platforms in Spain, this research compares the distinctive features and structural power dynamics they engender, and it constructs a taxonomy of business models of these care platforms. By analysing the main features of their operational models, we are capable of distinguishing three main types of platforms: marketplace, on‐demand, and digital placement agencies. First, the paper argues that the distinctive features of each digital platform business model have differentiated impacts on working conditions in terms of access to tasks, remuneration, flexibility and means of control. This differentiation allows us to understand what is transformative and what is continuous in platforms' precarization or formalisation of care work and working conditions of carers, mainly women and migrants.Each business model has its differentiated outcomes in terms of labour control and reorganization of women's and migrants' reproductive work. Second, more broadly, while digital care platforms may have contributed to facilitating workers' access to jobs, reducing transaction costs and standardising processes, this has often been through the creation of more flexible and insecure forms of work and to increased market pressures. Therefore, this study contributes to existing research addressing the degree of formalizationof labour relations in digital platform work through a nuanced analysis of their business models.
PB Wiley
YR 2024
FD 2024-06-14
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10433/23266
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10433/23266
LA en
NO Rodríguez-Modroño, P. (2024). A taxonomy of business models of digital care platforms in Spain. Sociology Compass, e13243.
NO Departamento de Economía, Metodos Cuantitativos e Historia Economica
NO Centro Interdisciplinar de Estudios Feministas, de las Mujeres y de Género
DS RIO
RD May 9, 2026