University of California Press
Side Hustle Safety Net: How Vulnerable Workers Survive Precarious Times
Key Metrics
- Alexandrea J Ravenelle
- University of California Press
- Paperback
- 9780520387300
- -
- -
- Social Science > Social Classes & Economic Disparity
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
This is the story of what the most vulnerable wage earners--gig workers, restaurant staff, early-career creatives, and minimum-wage laborers--do when the economy suddenly collapses. In Side Hustle Safety Net, Alexandrea J. Ravenelle builds on interviews with nearly two hundred gig-based and precarious workers, conducted during the height of the pandemic, to uncover the unique challenges they faced in unprecedented times.
This book tells the stories of the officially Unemployed and the forgotten jobless--a digital-era demographic that turned to side hustles--and reveals how they fared. CARES Act assistance allowed some to change careers, start businesses, and perhaps transform their lives. However, gig workers and those involved in polyemployment found themselves at the mercy of outdated unemployment systems, vulnerable to scams, and attempting dubious survival strategies. Ultimately, Side Hustle Safety Net argues that the rise of the gig economy, partnered with underemployment and economic instability, has increased worker precarity with disastrous consequences.
Author Bio
I'm an Assistant Professor in Sociology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and a Faculty Fellow with the Center for Urban and Regional Studies.
My first book, Hustle and Gig: Struggling and Surviving in the Sharing Economy (University of California Press) was released in March 2019.
I'm currently working on two mixed methods research projects:
Work in the Time of COVID-19, funded by an NSF RAPID Response grant, to study the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on precarious and gig workers in New York City, and
After the Hustle, funded through a Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation inaugural Knowledge Challenge grant, examining the impact of high-status gig work and sudden platform closings on gig economy entrepreneurs.
Source: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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