Matchmakers: Placement Agencies and Digital Platforms in the UK Childcare Market

Muldoon, James; Sedacca, Natalie; Apostolidis, Paul

Abstract

Households seeking childcare often turn to labour market intermediaries such as placement agencies and digital platforms to facilitate their search. This article draws on a qualitative research project to examine the respective roles played by agencies and platforms, comparing the structural power dynamics they engender between workers, clients, and intermediaries. First, it argues that digital platforms stand in an ambiguous position in relation to the formalisation of childcare. While they have contributed to reducing transaction costs and standardising processes, this has often been through the creation of more flexible and insecure forms of work compared with agencies. Second, in contrast with literature emphasising the disciplinary effects of platforms, we claim that they institute new forms of ‘constrained flexibility’, which have increased workers’ access to jobs, control over their schedule and communication with clients, while simultaneously subjecting them to increased market pressures and requiring higher levels of digital and entrepreneurial skills.

Citation

Muldoon, J., Sedacca, N., & Apostolidis, P. (online). Matchmakers: Placement Agencies and Digital Platforms in the UK Childcare Market. Work in the Global Economy, https://doi.org/10.1332/27324176Y2024D000000026

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 21, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Sep 30, 2024
• Deposit Date: Aug 27, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 30, 2024
• Journal: Work in the Global Economy
• Electronic ISSN: 2732-4176
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1332/27324176Y2024D000000026
• Keywords: care work, childcare, digital platforms, domestic work, placement agencies
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2771580