This paper introduces Workers‘ Inquiry as a Research Methodology or WIRM, a participatory methodology designed to shift AI research away from extractive practices and toward co-production with workers. Grounded in Marxist Workers’ Inquiry, WIRM centers workers as community researchers who shape the design, interpretation, and framing of research. We describe how WIRM was developed and implemented in the Data Workers‘ Inquiry (DWI) project across multiple countries, highlighting how the methodology adapts to diverse contexts of economic, physical, and political precarity. Rather than presenting empirical findings, this paper focuses on the methodology itself: its theoretical roots, structural components, and practical execution.
The International Labour Organization is set to vote on a Convention Concerning Decent Work in the Platform Economy in June 2026. This report focusses on the extent to which it addresses the labor issues faced by platform data workers and offers recommendations to strengthen and improve the protections for data workers engaged through platforms.
The report summarizes the issues faced by those workers, building centrally on the findings of Data Workers‘ Inquiry, evaluates the likely impact the current draft will have for data workers and offers recommendations to improve the proposed Convention. Highlighting important advances, avenues for strategic action and critical gaps.