Platform Work and Human Values from the Theological Perspective

Platform Work and Human Values from the Theological Perspective

Platform work, understood as the matching of the supply of and demand for paid work through an online platform, is still relatively small in scale but is developing rapidly in the world. Recently, delivery agency services such as Baedal Minjok, Yogiyo, and Coupang Eats, transportation services such as Uber and Kakao Taxi, and accommodation agencies are representative platform work. This dynamism and the ever-expanding scope of platform activities present economic opportunities, as well as challenges to existing regulatory frameworks. In a situation where the end of labor is predicted after the 4th industrial revolution, platform work is regarded as a new Job that is not restricted by time and place. However, platform workers are more economically subordinate than the existing labor structure, and they are more outside the existing labor laws. This paper analyzes the labor structure in which platform work exploits and subordinates humans, and studies the meaning of post-labor and post-human from the theological point of view. In the situation of transition from a labor-oriented society to an employment-oriented society, most humans give up on self-actualization through work and choose a life that is employed solely for wages and subordinated for consumption. In an era when employment disappears due to the 4th industrial revolution, this study examines how human labor and values are described in the Bible, and in this process, restoration of human dignity through labor. I propose post labor and post human in the dimension of life for creative production and coexistence.