Description project
Although workers with a disability are increasingly employed, many are given short-term, precarious contracts. To make up for this challenge, this NWO-KIC project aims to create and implement three social-technical innovations: i.e. (i) online labor platform cooperatives, (ii) underlying matching algorithms, and (iii) novel forms of digital work to foster the sustainable employment and inclusion of individuals with a disability. The research project combines methodologies and theories/concepts from both the social and technical sciences, and involves a variety of societal stakeholders such as workers with a disability, private companies, (semi)governmental organizations, and academics. The project consists of three PhD projects, that each focus on each of the three socio-technical innovations mentioned above. PhD Project 1 answers how to organize a platform cooperative to cope productively with various paradoxical tensions that are aligned with this organizational form. In particular, it examines the underlying mechanisms and consequences of invisible work paradoxes within platform cooperatives. PhD Project 2 answers what inclusive matching algorithms need to look like and how they need to function to matchmake labor demand and supply with special consideration for worker disabilities. Specifically, it aims to develop a machine-readable ontology that reflects important employee-employer characteristics that can be used for algorithmically matching workers with a disability to relevant jobs and organizations. Finally, PhD Project 3 examines how the digital work that is needed to develop online platforms and algorithmic technologies (such as data labelling, software testing, accessibility assessment) can be designed and organized to become a driver of labor market inclusion of vulnerable workers.
Expected outcomes
- Novel online labor platforms that match supply and demand for labor, and which are cooperatively run by member-workers.
- Ready-to-use ontologies for matching algorithms for matching workers with a disability to relevant jobs and organizations.
- Novel jobs and business models for digital labor that to foster the sustainable employment and inclusion of individuals with a disability.
involved researchers
Duration of the project
September 2025 – August 2031
Funding & partners
This project is funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) under the Knowledge and Innovation Convenant (KIC) programme, and is co-funded by both public and private partners.