Special edition - Work on Demand and Institutional Transformations: The Gig Economy in the European Union"

2025-06-26

The Perspectivas Contemporâneas journal announces its upcoming special edition, titled “Work on Demand and Institutional Transformations: The Gig Economy in the European Union.” Scheduled for publication in April 2026, the dossier brings together studies that examine the impact of platform-based economies on labor relations, social protection systems, and regulatory frameworks within the EU.

The initiative aims to foster a critical and interdisciplinary debate on the institutional changes driven by digital platforms such as Uber, Deliveroo, and Glovo, as well as on issues like collective organization, social justice, and the digitalization of work. The call for papers will open in July 2025, with a submission deadline set for November 15, 2025.

Coordinated by professors Fabricio Pelloso Piurcosky, Mario de Martino, and Rui Alexandre Castanho, the special issue invites researchers from various fields to contribute with reflections that also promote dialogue between European and South American contexts.

Expected Themes (Suggested Subtopics)

  • Implementation and repercussions of the European Directive on Platform Work

  • National regulation and case law on employment relationships in digital platforms

  • Union action, collective mobilization, and new forms of organization among gig workers

  • Structural inequalities, migration, and precarization in the platform economy

  • Intersectionalities and the differentiated impacts of the gig economy by gender, race, and class

  • Strategies for accountability and algorithmic transparency in digital platforms

  • Comparative models of public policies on digital labor in the EU

  • Methodological and ethical challenges in research on platform work