The journal article that I chose was a 21 pages article that was published back in 2021 in the American Sociological Review journal, Vol. 86. It explores the rise and the viability of gig workers in China, A.K.A, platform economy. The timeline and the background of this research are particularly fascinating to me because, personally, I have learned that China’s economy currently sits at a critical turning point, that is, the seemingly unavoidable risk of economic stagnation and growth, which is one of the most critical factors that the Chinese government uses to maintain social and political stability. When an economy stagnates, the quality of life of its citizenry takes the first hit. This is exactly what we have seen with last year’s draconian COVID-19 lockdown that the government implemented that affected a lot of people’s lives and the abrupt end to that Zero COVID policy amid the massive anti-government demonstrations. The author of this article explored one of the fastest-growing food-delivery platforms and struck up some in-depth interviews with roughly about 68 individuals who work in the industry to learn about their daily challenges and their prospective working in this sector. Later in the study, she went on to analyze roughly 87 cases of strikes and protests that have happened on this platform, and repercussions that are the result of those protests and mistreats of those workers, and the enormously challenging and difficult processes to filing grievances for those affected workers. What is also interesting about this study is that she randomly picked her interview subjects, which is a good sign of any empirical research because it promotes transparency in its data and the subjects are not cherry-picked to sway opinion. She even went as far as labeling and categorizing her interviewees by age group, educational level, gender, and city, which makes the data extremely easy to read at a glance, which, quite frankly, is why I chose to use this article in this review. Her findings are also very intriguing because although more than half of the workers expressed immense discontent with these platforms, they still prefer to work with these platforms than working in factory jobs because of the even harsher and labor-extensive nature of those factory jobs. This finding, quite frankly, supports the long observation of lacking social insurance and workers’ protections in the Chinese labor market, and because of this, workers are being exploited for the maximum profit of these gig platforms and factories.

Original Research and Citation:

Delivering Solidarity_ Platform Architecture and Collective Contention in China’s Platform Economy.pdfOpen this document with ReadSpeaker docReader Download Delivering Solidarity_ Platform Architecture and Collective Contention in China’s Platform Economy.pdfOpen this document with ReadSpeaker docReader

Lei, Y.-W. (2021). Delivering Solidarity: Platform Architecture and Collective Contention in China’s Platform Economy. American Sociological Review, 86(2), 279–309. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122420979980Links to an external site.

Answers to the prompt questions:

• The first step of the scientific method is to ask a question, describe a problem, and identify the specific area of interest. What is your research question, problem, or area of interest?
  • My research question for this particular article would be whether if these instances of mistreatment of workers on gig platforms cause social unrest for the government and whether the government should issue some regulations to protect these workers in an effort to maintain political and social stability.
• Are you interested in quantitative or qualitative research?
  • I am interested in both, and it would depend on the type of analytical paper being written or the type of research that I am conducting. Given the sheer volume of workers on these platforms and the limitation of the single researcher study, quantitative analysis is not very feasible for this author.
• Which methods would you utilize to conduct your research and why?
  • If given the proper funding, I would prefer quantitative research because after collecting those data, I am able to map them on charts, and those data points would tell a much better story than qualitative data, which primarily consists of subjective opinions.
• In your opinion, what do you believe to be the most difficult aspect of conducting research?
  • Data collection is going to be the most challenging part of an empirical study, especially with this type of research. This is also because of the political climate in China, in which authorities do not allow for free speech, so the limitation is that some of these workers may or may not speak out, simply trying to appease the authorities.
• What is a literature review and what are the benefits of including a literature review in your research?

• A literature review is simply looking over the study to see if it is trustworthy and whether if the data makes sense. Ultimately though, it is to see if there are any biases in its data collection and whether the data support its final conclusion or its original hypothesis.
• What is the article’s citation?  (Title, Author/s, publication, issue, year, page numbers etc.)
  • The article is 21 pages long and was published in the American Sociological Review journal, Vol. 86.
• What is the article’s research question?
  • Exploration to see what these gig workers felt about working on these platforms and whether if they prefer this over other jobs in this weakened economy.
• Why do you think it is sociological?
  • This is sociological because it directly impacts social and political stability, which is important not only for the harmony of society but also for how an authoritarian state such as China retains its grip on powers over its citizenry.
• Why did you choose this article as a source to be utilized in your literature review?
  • I chose it because of the clean and easy-to-read data points and the way that the data was collected.
• What research design/methods were used?
  • They utilized both quantitative and qualitative, quantitative for the number of protests and grievances filed, and qualitative for the in-depth interviews.
• These methods are: qualitative/ quantitative or mixed?
  • Both were utilized in this particular study.
• Who/what was included in the sample
  • A total of 68 interviews and 87 strikes. Unfortunately, the same size could be a bit more, in my opinion.
• What were the findings?
  • Most interviewed people said that even though they were mistreated, they would still rather work in these gig works than those even harsher condition factory jobs.