This article extends the economic-sociological concept of embeddedness to encompass not only social networks of, for example, friendship or kinship ties, but also economic networks of ownership and control relationships. Applying these ideas to the case of digital platform labour pinpoints two possible scenarios. When platforms take the role of market intermediaries, economic ties are thin and workers are left to their own devices, in a form of ‘disembeddedness’. When platforms partake in intricate inter-firm outsourcing structures, economic ties envelop workers in a ‘deep embeddedness’ which involves both stronger constraints and higher rewards. With this added dimension, the notion of embeddedness becomes a compelling tool to describe the social structures that frame economic action, including the power imbalances that characterize digital labour in the global economy.

本文将嵌入的经济社会学概念扩展到不仅包括例如友谊或亲属关系的社会网络，还包括所有权和控制关系的经济网络。将这些想法应用到数字平台工作的案例中，可以找到两种可能的情况。当平台扮演市场中介者的角色时，经济联系薄弱，而工人则以“嵌入的”形式留给自己的设备。当平台参与错综复杂的公司间外包结构时，经济纽带将工人包裹在“深层嵌入”中，这既包含更强的约束条件，也包含更高的回报。有了这个附加维度，嵌入性的概念就成为描述构成经济行为的社会结构的引人注目的工具，