From Amway to Uber: A genealogy of sponsored entrepreneurship

This article develops a new history of gig work by turning to the margins of standard histories of capitalism. In contrast to prior research, which has used historical analogies to describe the contemporary gig economy, we develop a genealogy of three organizational forms that have sponsored entrepreneurship in the United States since the early twentieth century: multi-level marketing organizations, franchises, and platforms. We analyze how all three organizational forms have restructured work by appealing to individuals, communities, and states, promising solutions to forms of marginalization and exclusion that existing employment laws and norms created. However, we find that sponsored entrepreneurship tends to perpetuate and even exacerbate the inequalities that it purports to remedy.