"What sets Uberworked and Underpaid apart is Scholz’s interest in establishing an alternative to what he terms 'platform capitalism' in favor of more equitable labor practices that increase workers’ power and control in the digital economy. [...] Scholz sets his sights high in an attempt to provide typologies of digital labor, to create a new language for crowd fleecing, and ultimately in his desire to envision an alternative via platform cooperatives. While the concepts are interesting, this ambitious book deserved more careful editing than it received. Better integration of some of the examples offered would have resulted in a more concise read, though the current outline with sub-headings for each theme does provide needed structure. Additional endnotes would have also provided important context for references to less known platforms and cooperatives. The book lays out a solid argument for embracing platform cooperativism as an avenue to resisting digital exploitation. For a book that seeks to be broadly comprehensive, however, other strategies for worker organizing, such as traditional unionization, worker centers, and online forums are explored in far less detail. This points to an important gap in existing literature that requires investigation. In short, Uberworked and Underpaid is among the first books to explore workers’ organizing strategy in the burgeoning area of platform capitalism. The book is written in a style that straddles academic and popular audiences. It will be of interest to anyone in search of an overview of current trends in digital labor."

"Scholz’s work is an important contribution to the sociology of work and the literature on the digital economy. It highlights the exploitation and harms of the on-demand economy links it to a macro-level analysis of the consolidated ownership of platform capitalism. Making the relationship between the macro level of platform capitalism and the micro level of individual‘solo workers’connects Scholz’s work to the wider literature on labour market transformation and wider political-economic change. In delineating the features of the‘on-demand’ economy and offering a typology of work, the book provides a useful resource in defining the features of this new form of labour. Finally, in the concept of‘crowd fleecing’, Scholz offers a critical analytical counter to some of the received positivity behind online communities and crowdsourcing; it recognises the hidden exploitation taking place in the background as consumers enjoy the convenience afforded by privately controlled platforms which profit on the back of enclosure and exclusion within a consumer capitalist culture driven by the demands of immediacy. The hidden exploitation underpinning that must be brought to the fore and this book does that. In suggesting possible routes out of this impasse and beyond the confines of shareholder capitalism, Scholz creates a platform (pun intended) for further debate and discussion."