Consumer Behaviour and Alienation in the Gig Economy

This doctoral research will investigate the relationship between consumer behaviour within the gig
economy and the social pathology of alienation. Many studies of alienation emphasise the effects on
workers. However, gig-economy workers consist of a relatively small number of people. More numerous
and more significant in driving the gig economy and fostering its alienating social relations are
consumers. Alienation has been critiqued due to the concept's essentialist foundations, and its use had
declined. Rahel Jaeggi (2014) is attempting to de-essentialise and revive the concept, which she
understands as the impairment of, or impediment to, "appropriation". However, Jaeggi's
conceptualisation arises from her specific ontology, and her examples relate to a narrow section of
society. Consequently, Jaeggi's formulation does not provide a concrete empirical method for exploration.
A study of alienation that encompasses consumer behaviour within the gig economy would: be more
widely applicable, provide a fuller explanation, enable a diagnosis and development of strategies to
ameliorate alienating relations, better enabling individuals to "appropriate". Primary data will be
collected by conducting interviews and focus groups in the UK and Iceland. A comparison of the UK with
Iceland, which I hypothesise is relatively less alienated, will illuminate how consumer behaviour and
alienation within the gig economy environment is experienced in different societal contexts. Discourse
analysis will follow each interview and focus group. This research will complement existing studies that
focus on workers, and will provide a fuller understanding of complex alienating relations.