Redefining digital labour platforms through technico-organizational interfaces. A study of female-dominated sectors in French-speaking Switzerland

Digital labour platforms have expanded rapidly into domestic cleaning, childcare and care services, yet the concept of “platform” remains analytically blurred. Existing research often treats care platforms as a homogeneous category or examines organisational and technological dimensions separately. Building on Seibt’s theory of platformisation, this chapter conceptualises platforms as sociotechnical systems that intermediate work through the interaction of organisational arrangements and digital components. Drawing on an original mapping of 31 intermediaries operating in the cleaning, care and multiservice sectors of French-speaking Switzerland, and a systematic analysis of company interfaces, we examine how intermediaries organise work through task allocation, pricing mechanisms, matching systems and ratings. We identify five types of intermediaries: labour-structuring platforms, labour-negotiating platforms, online marketplaces, employment agencies and service-providing companies. We argue that only the first two strictly qualify as digital labour platforms, as they actively reorganise labour through technologically mediated coordination, task fragmentation and pricing intervention. By contrast, the remaining intermediary types primarily reproduce existing labour-market arrangements through limited forms of digitalisation rather than platformisation. The chapter advances a more precise definition of digital labour platforms and shows how platformisation reshapes work organisation, labour valuation and worker autonomy while often reproducing the historical undervaluation of female-dominated labour in cleaning and care sectors.