[A]n unexplored link between two sides of the platform gig economy: platform coordination of labor, on the one hand, and expansion of automation techniques for said labor on the other... an organizational configuration that we call ‘pre-automation.’ We define pre-automation as the coincident, strategic effort to scale a workforce and monopolize a distribution network via platform while simultaneously investing in its automated replacement.

In new work I am examining changes in the experiences of the labor force in gig work and contract labor. With collaborators at Princeton such as Adam Goldstein, Diana Enriquez, and Larry Liu, we have worked under a Sloan Foundation grant to understand gig workers' role in the automation of labor. With David Reinecke, I am studying the Covid-19 transition as it affects workers in planetary sciences, who are often on soft money and rely on grant cycles. This work examines labor in socioeconomic context, drawing on literature in economic sociology.