Skip to product information
1 of 2

Inside the Invisible Cage

Regular price $29.95
Regular price $29.95 Sale price $29.95
Sold out
In a world increasingly run by algorithms and artificial intelligence, Hatim Rahman traces how organizations are using algorithms to control workers in an “invisible cage.”  Inside the Invisible Ca...
Read More
  • 06 August 2024
View Product Details
In a world increasingly run by algorithms and artificial intelligence, Hatim Rahman traces how organizations are using algorithms to control workers in an “invisible cage.”
 
Inside the Invisible Cage uses unique longitudinal data to investigate how digital labor platforms use algorithms to dictate the actions of high-skilled workers by determining accepted behaviors, work opportunities, and even success. As Hatim Rahman explains, employers can use algorithms to shift rules and guidelines without notice, explanation, or recourse for workers. The invisible cage signals a profound shift in the way markets and organizations categorize and ultimately control people.
 
Unlike previous forms of labor control, the invisible cage is ubiquitous, yet it is also opaque and shifting, which makes breaking free from it difficult for workers. This book traces how the invisible cage was developed over time and the implications it has for the spread of new technology, such as generative artificial intelligence. Inside the Invisible Cage also provides organizations, workers, and policymakers with insights on how to ensure the future of work has truly equitable, mutually beneficial outcomes.
files/i.png Icon
Price: $29.95
Pages: 288
Publisher: University of California Press
Imprint: University of California Press
Publication Date: 06 August 2024
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9780520395541
Format: Paperback
REVIEWS Icon
"Rahman’s book outlines several pain points that platforms should strive to solve if gig workers are to remain engaged and fulfilled. . . . It’s clear that gig-based work is here to stay, so it’s important that the platforms grow so that workers get a fair share of the pie rather than scrabble around in a race to the bottom. The aim should be for the growth of platforms to be as good for workers as it is for businesses so that we don’t confine workers to the ‘invisible cage’ they’re currently in."
Hatim A. Rahman is an award-winning assistant professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Contents

List of Figure and Tables 
Acknowledgments 

1 Introduction 

2 A New Labor Market Paradigm 
3 Ratings: The Driving Force of Algorithmic Control on TalentFinder 
4 Laying the Foundations of the Invisible Cage 
5 Inside the Invisible Cage 
6 The Cascading Consequences of Living Inside the Invisible Cage 
7 Reputational Interdependence: Why Workers Remain Inside the Invisible Cage 
8 Implications for Theory and Practice 
9 The Future of Control in the Age of Algorithms 

Methodological Appendix 
Notes 
References 
Index