The Duality of Global Online Labour Platforms As Restrictive-Expansive Sites of Professional Learning and Development

The paper theorises global online labour platforms (OLPs) through the lens of the Expansive-Restrictive Learning Environments framework. The framework articulates a set of structural factors that enable or constrain workplace learning and human resource development (HRD). The paper draws on multi-stakeholder and mixed-method empirical data to illustrate how OLPs are emerging as learning environments, where new and reconfigured skills, learning practices and new forms of learning support emerge in response to the radically distributed and fragmented nature of this work. Against portrayals of OLPs as places of deskilling work devoid of learning opportunities, the paper’s main contribution consists in offering a more nuanced understanding of the duality of OLPs as simultaneously restrictive and expansive. Three dualities of OLPs emerge from the study: (i) espoused vision restricts organisational support for workforce development yet stimulates self-directed learning; (ii) enacted workplace curriculum is patchy and opaque yet offers novel structural features supporting learning and skills development; (iii) workplace learning practices are autonomous yet not atomised. The paper illustrates how structure and individual agency interact to create and configure learning opportunities for workers and informs HR practitioners about the current HRD features and practices in OLPs