Lutfun Nahar Lata

This paper sheds light on how gig workers shape and are shaped by the urban fabric.
We call for urban policies that acknowledge and support the presence, rights, and wellbeing of gig workers.
📍Melbourne is just one example—this is a global issue.

Yet, amidst precarity:
🤝 Riders form strong peer networks in public space
💬 Small acts of solidarity, sharing, and rest
🧠 These social ties become vital to mental health & resilience.

Key findings:
🚫 Denied access to restaurants/lobbies
🛑 No safe or legal rest zones
🪑 Riders rest on bikes or public benches
🧻 No toilets, shelter, or charging points
These exclusions are part of the architecture of gig work

The everyday lives of gig workers in Melbourne The rise of the gig or platform economy, particularly app-based food delivery platforms, has transformed urban labor markets and the everyday geography of work. While gig work is often celebrated f...

Pleased to share our latest paper, 'The everyday lives of gig workers in Melbourne', published @urbangeography.bsky.social.This paper explores the spatial and institutional barriers gig workers face while accessing restaurants & delivering to customers. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
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Call for book chapters for our forthcoming book ‘Future of Work and Care’. See details below 👇
Abstract submission deadline: 15 August

#futureofwork #care

How much should parasitic gig companies contribute to city resources? Every employee needs toilets and break facilities, but gig companies don’t provide these, leaving workers dependent on public amenities, creating a burden for them and the urban infrastructure, finds...

Our research shows that digital platforms profit from city infrastructure without giving anything back. In this article, we call for greater accountability from platform companies, urging them to share the responsibility for maintaining urban infrastructure.

pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/how...

When they are legally unable to form a union, how can gig workers in #Bangladesh challenge their exploitative working conditions?

@lutfunlata.bsky.social on agency, overt and covert resistance and the importance of informal networks.

#OpenAccess in the journal buff.ly/8H35CAX

EVENT ALERT: Platforms and Society and
@adtechproject.bsky.social present "How to Approach and Regulate Google?" - an online symposium
12 May 2025 | 9:00–10:30 AM (EST) / 3-4.30 PM (CEST) newschool.zoom.us/j/9834828717... (pw. 690528)

Pleased to see my latest paper ‘Algorithmic control & resistance in the gig economy’ published in The Sociological Review. This paper explores how Uber drivers in Bangladesh exercise agency through both covert & overt resistance strategies. Read the paper here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

As cities become more dependent on digital labour platforms, it is crucial to ensure that platform workers have access to the same urban amenities as everyone else. Governments, unions, & communities must work together to prevent the deepening of inequalities in the gig economy.

We introduce the concept ‘parasitic platform urbanism’ to refer to platforms as ‘parasites’. Just as parasites benefit at the expense of the other, or the ‘host’, digital labour platforms rely on cities’ existing public infrastructure without acknowledging this reliance.

Our paper examines how gig workers navigate the urban landscape using public infrastructure - parking spaces, toilets, water points, and battery charging facilities, while platform companies reap the benefits without contributing to these essential resources.

Parasitic platform urbanism in Dhaka and Melbourne - Lutfun Nahar Lata, Andrew Copolov, 2025 This paper explores the relationship between platform-mediated labour on Uber, Pathao, UberEats and DoorDash, and the public infrastructures of two cities – Dha...

Pleased to see our (w Andrew Copolov) latest paper 'Parasitic platform urbanism in Dhaka and Melbourne' published in Human Geography. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
#platformeconomy #urbaninfrastructure #regulation #Uber #Pathao #DoorDash #HungryPanda #Australia #Bangladesh

The next London Inequality Workshop (10th) will take place at UCL on March 20th!

Register and find more details about upcoming the workshop here:

OHCHR Fact-Finding Report: Human Rights Violations and Abuses related to the Protests of July and August 2024 in Bangladesh SummaryAt the invitation of the Interim Government of Bangladesh, OHCHR conducted an independent fact-finding inquiry into alleged human rights violations and abuses that occurred between 1 July and 1...

The UN human rights commision published its report on the human rights violations during the Bangladesh uprising of July-August 2024. The results are shocking but not surprising, even to those of us who followed events closely. 🇧🇩🇧🇩🇧🇩 www.ohchr.org/en/documents...

Great work showing how people’s career choices mirror their parents' in knowledge, values, skills, and more – and discussing the implications for inequality.

Thousands of workers flooded the streets of Brussels today to oppose the measures the Arizona government coalition wants to impose!

We stand with our Belgian comrades 🛑 NO to austerity!
🛑 NO to attacks on trade union rights

We will not stand down! 💪🏽

@judekd.bsky.social
@ibarthes.bsky.social

Want to take part in an event on conducting fieldwork across national and cultural boundaries? Call for Papers by 31 March for ‘Navigating Challenges and Complexities in Cross-national and Cross-cultural Fieldwork’ a BSA Postgraduate Forum event, 21 May, University of Leeds https://tinyurl.com/mrf5vtx7

Want to take part in an event on conducting fieldwork across national and cultural boundaries? Call for Papers by 31 March for ‘Navigating Challenges and Complexities in Cross-national and Cross-cultural Fieldwork’ a BSA Postgraduate Forum event, 21 May, University of Leeds tinyurl.com/mrf5vtx7

This is a venn diagram showing how 69 Trump actions map onto domains covering: undermining democratic institutions; suppressing dissent and media; dismantling social protections; attacking science and education; destabilising the global order. A table version is available here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LZN7QnbSyFfUZJG8Sn1MWpK0VnfBtb0OSyZ1jxP3xBk/edit?usp=sharing

🧵"So this is how liberty dies..."

Trump’s first 3 weeks have been a relentless flood of actions. It's incredibly hard to keep up.

I’ve gone through 69 actions & mapped out the pattern - showing how they fall within 5 broad domains consistent with authoritarian states 1/9

Reminder: Submit your paper for the 7th Weizenbaum Conference "Empowering People in Online Spaces: Democracy and Well-being in Digital Societies", to be held in Berlin, June 4-5, 2025. #CfP

Apply before February 15, 2025

www.weizenbaum-conference.de

@claraigk.bsky.social @dscheykopp.bsky.social

Did COVID‐19 Level the Playing Field or Entrench It? Comparing Patterns of Homeworking by Ethnicity, Gender and Migration Status, Before, During and After COVID‐19 in the UK This study examines how the pandemic changed the ethnicity gaps in working-from-home practices in the UK. We do this by examining seven waves of the UK Labour Force Survey from 2017 to 2023, divided ...

NEW PAPER! Shiyu Yuan explores whether COVID-19 removed the inequalities in homeworking practices across gender/racial lines. Although most workers did benefit from the rise of WFH patterns, Black men and Chinese workers not so much. @giwlkings.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

☀️Early view📨

We are observing a new AI spring, but how could we make sense of the complex challenges & govern #GenerativeAI❓

Araz Taeihagh introduces the upcoming SI that unpacks generative AI and its risks & highlights unique challenges👇

doi.org/10.1093/pols...

Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance Google changed its public AI policies to remove assertions it would not develop AI applied to surveillance or weapons.

Hey bro! Tell us again how tech is not political.

"Google drops pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance" www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Another excellent book written by @ruha9.bsky.social.”I want more than anything for your imagination to run wild".

What happens after early career? Find out by booking on our event ‘Coping, Thriving, Progressing?’, a @bsaecr.bsky.social event, 21 March, Newcastle University https://tinyurl.com/ykj8tjdh #sociology

What happens after 'early career'? Find out by booking on our event ‘Coping, Thriving, Progressing?’, a @bsaecr.bsky.social event, 21 March, Newcastle University tinyurl.com/ykj8tjdh #sociology

🚨 Job Alert! 🚨

I’m looking for a postdoc to join my Emmy Noether project on the New Climate Divide! 🌍

🔍 It is a 3-year position with a likely extension for another 3 years & no teaching obligations

📄 Check out the job call: uni-heidelberg.de/md/politik/p...

Thanks for sharing! 🤝

Monographs: Our Monograph series and how to submit a proposal Guidance on how to submit a proposal to the Sociological Review Monographs series.

📣 Call for proposals for our Sociological Review monograph series. 📣

Editor @silkeroth.bsky.social is looking to commission two monographs for publication in 2027. Deadline for receipt of proposals is 16 June 2025.

🔎 Read more about the call and series:
thesociologicalreview.org/publish-with...

Research Associate – English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA):Oxford Road

📢VACANCY: Research Associate - ELSA longitudinal study. Post focuses on the social science elements of the study espec ethnic inequalities in later life. Full time, 10.5 months. Closing date 31/01/25
@uomsociology.bsky.social @britsoci.bsky.social
www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...