Cosmin Popan

Team

Cosmin Popan is a Leverhulme post-doctoral fellow in Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he leads the project ‘Doing gig work: Social implications of platform-based food deliveries’. His areas of interest are gig economy, digital sociology and mobilities studies. He is the author of the book monograph ‘Bicycle Utopias: Imagining Fast and Slow Cycling Futures’ (Routledge, 2019).

His recent publications include:

• Popan, C. (2021) Algorithmic governance in the gig economy: entrepreneurialism and solidarity among food delivery workers, in Cycling Societies Innovations, Inequalities and Governance, Routledge 
• Zuev, D., Psarikidou, K. and Popan, C. (eds.) (2021) Cycling Societies: Innovations, Inequalities and Governance, Routledge
• Popan, C. (2020) Beyond utilitarian mobilities: cycling senses and the subversion of the car system, Applied Mobilities 
• Spinney, J. and Popan, C. (2020) Mobilising Street Culture: Understanding the Implications of the Shift from Lifestyle Bike Messengers to Gig Economy Workers, Routledge Handbook of Street Culture, Routledge

For the Fairwork project, Cosmin develops and leads the research strategy in Romania. This includes adapting the Fairwork principles, interviewing workers, analysing the evidence and developing platforms’ scores, and disseminating the results.