Publications

Abstract
This paper compares the strategies used by crowdworkers and conventional knowledge workers to self-regulate their learning in the workplace. Crowdworkers are a self-employed, radically distributed workforce operating outside conventional organisational settings; they have no access to the sorts of training, professional development and incidental learning opportunities that workers in conventional workplaces typically do. The paper explores what differences there are between crowdworkers and conventional knowledge workers in terms of self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies they undertake. Data were drawn from four datasets using the same survey instrument. Respondents included crowdworkers from FigureEight (previously CrowdFlower) and Upwork platforms and conventional knowledge workers in the finance, education and healthcare sectors. The results show that the majority of crowdworkers and conventional knowledge workers used a wide range of SRL strategies. Among 20 strategies explored, a statistically significant difference was uncovered in the use of only one strategy. Specifically, crowdworkers were significantly less likely than the conventional workers to articulate plans of how to achieve their learning goals. The results suggest that, despite working outside organisational structures, crowdworkers are similar to
conventional workers in terms of how they self-regulate their workplace learning. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of these findings and proposing directions for future research. Download full article

Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to explore workplace learning practices within two types of crowdwork – microwork and online freelancing. Specifically, the paper scopes and compares the use of workplace learning activities (WLAs) and self-regulatory learning (SRL) strategies undertaken by microworkers (MWs) and online freelancers (OFs). We hypothesised that there may be quantitative differences in the use of WLAs and SRL strategies within these two types of crowdwork, because of the underpinning differences in the complexity of tasks and skill requirements.
Design/methodology/approach – To test this hypothesis, a questionnaire survey was carried out among crowdworkers from two crowdwork platforms – Figure Eight (microwork) and Upwork (online freelancing). Chi-square test was used to compare WLAs and SRL strategies among OFs and MWs.
Findings – Both groups use many WLAs and SRL strategies. Several significant differences were identified between the groups. In particular, moderate and moderately strong associations were uncovered, whereby OFs were more likely to report (i) undertaking free online courses/tutorials and (ii) learning by receiving feedback. In addition, significant but weak or very weak associations were identified, namely, OFs were more likely to learn by (i) collaborating with others, (ii) self-study of literature and (iii) making notes when learning. In contrast, MWs were more likely to write reflective notes on learning after the completion of work tasks, although this association was very weak.
Originality/value – The paper contributes empirical evidence in an under-researched area – workplace learning practices in crowdwork. Crowdwork is increasingly taken up across developed and developing countries. Therefore, it is important to understand the learning potential of this form of work and where the gaps and issues might be. Better understanding of crowdworkers’ learning practices could help platform providers and policymakers to shape the design of crowdwork in ways that could be beneficial to all stakeholders. Download full article

Abstract
This paper reports outcomes of a systematic scoping review of methodological approaches and analytical lenses used in empirical research on crowdwork. Over the past decade a growing corpus of publications spanning Social Sciences and Computer Science/HCI have empirically examined the nature of work practices and tasks within crowdwork; surfaced key individual and environmental factors underpinning workers’ decisions to engage in this form of work; developed and implemented tools to improve and extend various aspects of crowdwork, such as the design and allocation of tasks and incentives or workflows within the platforms; and contributed new techniques and know-how on data collection within crowdwork, for example, how to conduct largescale surveys and experiments in behavioural psychology, economics or education drawing on crowdworker samples. Our initial reading of the crowdwork literature suggested that research had relied on a limited set of relatively narrow methodological approaches, mostly online experiments, surveys and interviews. Importantly, crowdwork research has tended to examine workers’ experiences as snapshots in time rather than studying these longitudinally or contextualising them historically, environmentally and developmentally. This piece-meal approach has given the research community initial descriptions and interpretations of crowdwork practices and provided an important starting point in a nascent field of study. However, the depth of research in the various areas, and the missing pieces, have yet to be systematically scoped out. Therefore, this paper systematically reviews the analytical-methodological approaches used in crowdwork research identifying gaps in these approaches. We argue that to take crowdwork research to the next level it is essential to examine crowdwork practices within the context of both individual and historicalenvironmental factors impacting it. To this end, methodological approaches that bridge sociological, psychological, individual, collective, online, offline, and temporal processes and practices of crowdwork are needed. The paper proposes the Life Course perspective as an interdisciplinary framework that can help address these gaps and advance research on crowdwork. The paper concludes by proposing a set of Life Course-inspired research questions to guide future
studies of crowdwork. Download full article

Abstract
This paper addresses learning and development processes in online platform work. Specifically, it proposes a new instrument to survey and analyze self‐regulated workplace learning in crowdwork, a type of online platform labor in which a global pool of workers are matched with clients through digital platforms to carry out remunerated tasks. Although workplace learning practices of workers in traditional, organisationally embedded jobs have been studied extensively, the findings cannot be transferred to describe and explain learning behaviors within crowdwork, which is fundamentally different from traditional work in that it is autonomous, radically distributed, and no organisationally provided training opportunities exist in crowdwork. To advance the understanding of workplace learning in crowdwork we reviewed the literature on workplace learning, platform work, and self‐regulated learning to develop the Workplace Learning in Crowdwork Questionnaire, which we subsequently validated with 992 crowdworkers from six European countries on three crowdwork platforms. The instrument can be used by researchers to study the nature of (self‐directed) workplace learning in online labor platforms. It can also be used by crowdworkers to self‐reflect on their learning and development. Download full article.

Abstract
How might emancipatory teaching practices look like in the context of the business school, when the meaning of the subject of emancipation, the human being, has become unsettled? Our philosophical essay addresses this question by excavating Jacques Rancière’s conception of intellectual emancipation and showing its practical relevance for experiments with emancipatory teaching in a business school environment. Speaking from within a tradition where the meaning of human is irrevocably unsettled, Rancière, remarkably, still insists on an essential link between emancipation and humanism – although in a minimal version. First, we show why and how Rancière’s analyses of emancipation are united by the common concern to affirm such a minimal humanism. Thereafter, we describe how three features sets intellectual emancipation apart from
social and aesthetic emancipation and makes it pertinent to take intellectual emancipation to school: The possibility and intention to emancipate others, the acknowledgement of the constructive role of reason herein, and the significance of teacher authority in doing so. Lastly, we move beyond and problematize Rancière’s clear conceptual account of intellectual emancipation by extracting three heuristic pedagogical devices from it and by recounting their confrontation with the messy details of our teaching practice at the business school. Download full article

Abstract
While conventional historical narratives of entrepreneurship education focus on its rise in business schools since the 1970s, this paper traces its roots to the early 19th century and chronicles its evolution within the field of higher education more broadly. Using a comparative history design, we show how changing social imaginaries of entrepreneurship education in Germany and the United States were based on divergent and evolving justifications of entrepreneurial autonomy and its relationship to the common good. Our narrative explores how these social imaginaries shaped the moral and political legitimacy of entrepreneurship and the aims, practices, and organizational forms of entrepreneurship education. We draw out the implications of this deeper history for entrepreneurship education today, including (a) its current social imaginary, (b) the character of entrepreneurial knowledge, and (c) the relationship of entrepreneurship education to the modern university. Download Full Article