Labour‐management practices and workers’ experiences in the gig economy are topics of major interest for researchers, regulators and the general public. Platform companies project a vision of gig workers as autonomous freelancers, but pervasive features of their own labour practices, along with workers’ traits, create new vulnerabilities and risks. Efforts to improve gig workers’ conditions to date have made in‐roads without achieving a general shift in platforms’ practices or gig workers’ conditions. In this paper, we explore how another, less‐recognised stakeholder group—consumers—shapes the conditions of gig work. Drawing on Australian public opinion data, we study consumers’ views of the gig economy and ask whether these will help or hinder pro‐worker campaigns. While consumers are sympathetic to gig workers’ financial plight, they also see benefits in the work’s flexibility and opportunities for jobseekers. We explain how our findings can inform advocacy campaigns and further gig economy research.

中文翻译：

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怀疑论者还是支持者？消费者在零工经济中的工作观

零工经济中的劳动管理实践和工人经验是研究人员，监管机构和公众所关注的主题。平台公司将“零工”作为“自由职业者”作为愿景，但是他们自己的劳动实践的普遍特征以及工人的特征造成了新的脆弱性和风险。迄今为止，为改善演出工作人员的条件而进行的努力并未在平台实践或演出工作人员的条件上实现总体转变。在本文中，我们探索了另一个未被广泛认可的利益相关者群体（消费者）如何影响演出工作的条件。利用澳大利亚的民意数据，我们研究了消费者对零工经济的看法，并询问这是否有助于或阻碍工人运动。消费者同情演出者的财务困境，他们还看到了工作的灵活性以及求职者的机会带来的好处。我们解释了我们的发现如何为宣传运动和进一步的演出经济研究提供信息。