Unpacking informality in the gig-economy: ethnographic insights into platform capitalism and its baroque labour process

Titolo Rivista SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO
Autori/Curatori Gianmarco Peterlongo
Anno di pubblicazione 2024 Fascicolo 2023/167 Lingua Inglese
Numero pagine 20 P. 121-140 Dimensione file 239 KB
DOI 10.3280/SL2023-167006
Il DOI è il codice a barre della proprietà intellettuale: per saperne di più clicca qui

Qui sotto puoi vedere in anteprima la prima pagina di questo articolo.

Se questo articolo ti interessa, lo puoi acquistare (e scaricare in formato pdf) seguendo le facili indicazioni per acquistare il download credit. Acquista Download Credits per scaricare questo Articolo in formato PDF

Anteprima articolo

FrancoAngeli è membro della Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA)associazione indipendente e non profit per facilitare (attraverso i servizi tecnologici implementati da CrossRef.org) l’accesso degli studiosi ai contenuti digitali nelle pubblicazioni professionali e scientifiche

This paper sheds light on workers’ agency in dealing with algorithmic management and the informal arrangements underneath the platform economy. The research is based on a multi-sited ethnography of last-mile logistics platforms carried out between Italy and Argentina. In both ride-hailing and food-delivery platforms, workers engage in infrastructural re-appropriations and informal economic activities developed at the boundaries of the platform economy. The two cases studied illustrate how platforms strongly intersect with urban informal economies and contribute to foster informal circuits of labour. This is evidenced by the prevalence of illicit exchanges, such as the sale of hacking bots and markets for fake accounts. The paper conclusions provide a baroque perspective for a more nuanced understanding of the labour process and its accumulation circuits in the gig economy, characterised by a complex interplay between formal and informal dimensions of work. Yet, far from hindering the platform economy, informality underpins the companies’ ability to thrive in local social contexts.

Keywords:informal circuits, infrastructural reappropriation, gig-economy, baroque

  1. Ackroyd S., Thompson P. (1999). Organizational misbehaviour. London: Sage Publications.
  2. Anwar M.A., Graham M. (2020). Hidden transcripts of the gig economy: Labour agency and the new art of resistance among African gig workers. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 52(7): 1269-91. DOI: 10.1177/0308518X1989458
  3. Barbosa S., Milan S. (2019). Do Not Harm in Private Chat Apps: Ethical Issues for Research on and with WhatsApp. Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, 14(1): 49-65.
  4. Beck U. (2000). The Brave New World of Work. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
  5. Borghi V. (2016). Workers and the global informal economy: Issues and perspectives. In: Routh S. e Borghi V., a cura di, Workers and the global informal economy: Interdisciplinary perspectives. London: Routledge.
  6. Borghi V. (2021). Capitalismo delle infrastrutture e connettività. Proposte per una sociologia critica del «mondo a domicilio». Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia, 62(3): 671-99. DOI: 10.1423/10198
  7. Borghi V., Peterlongo G. (2023). Hybridisation of work and the platform informal revolution. Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia, 64(2): 317-44. DOI: 10.1423/10786
  8. Braverman H. (1974). Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century. New York: Monthly Review Press.
  9. Breman J., van der Linden M. (2014). Informalizing the Economy: The Return of the Social Question at a Global Level. Development and Change, 45(5): 920-40.
  10. Bucher E.L., Schou P.K. and Waldkirch, M. (2021). Pacifying the algorithm – Anticipatory compliance in the face of algorithmic management in the gig economy. Organization, 28(1): 44-67. DOI: 10.1177/135050842096153
  11. Cant C. (2020). Riding for Deliveroo: Resistance in the new economy. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
  12. Carey J.W. (1983). Technology and Ideology: The Case of the Telegraph. Prospects, 8: 303-25. DOI: 10.1017/S036123330000379
  13. Casilli A., Torres-Cierpe J., De Stavola F. and Peterlongo G. (2023). Des GAFAM aux RUM. Plateformes et débrouille dans le Sud global. Pouvoirs, 185: 51-67. hal.science/hal-04007123
  14. Castells M., Portes A. (1989). World Underneath: The Origins, Dynamics and Effects of the Informal Economy. In: Portes A., Castells M. and Benton L.A., a cura di, The Informal economy: Studies in advanced and less developed countries. Baltimore, US: Johns Hopkins University Press.
  15. CEPAL/ILO. (2021). Trabajo decente para los trabajadores de plataformas en América Latina (Fasc. 24; Coyuntura Laboral en América Latina y el Caribe). Geneva: International Labour Office.
  16. Chen J.Y. (2018). Thrown under the bus and outrunning it! The logic of Didi and taxi drivers’ labour and activism in the on-demand economy. New Media & Society, 20(8): 2691-711. DOI: 10.1177/146144481772914
  17. Chikofsky E.J., Cross J.H. (1990). Reverse engineering and design recovery: A taxonomy. IEEE Software, 7: 13-17. DOI: 10.1109/52.4304
  18. Cingolani P. (2021). L’informalità del capitale: Tempi, lavoro e capitalismo delle piattaforme. Cambio. Rivista sulle trasformazioni sociali, 10(21): 79-89.
  19. Cini L. (2023). Resisting algorithmic control: Understanding the rise and variety of platform worker mobilisations. New Technology, Work and Employment, 38(1): 125-144.
  20. Cini L., Goldmann B. (2020). The Worker Capabilities Approach: Insights from Worker Mobilizations in Italian Logistics and Food Delivery. Work, Employment and Society, 00: 1-20. DOI: 10.1177/095001702095267
  21. Cognetti F., Cellamare C. (2014). Practices of Reappropriation. Roma-Milano: Planum Publisher.
  22. De Stavola F. (2020). Potere, controllo e soggettività nelle piattaforme digitali di food delivery: un’analisi foucaultiana dell’app latinoamericana Rappi. Sociologia del Lavoro, 158: 178-98. DOI: 10.3280/SL2020-15800
  23. Declich A. (2019). Le aspettative finzionali: Una nuova analisi della dinamica del capitalismo. Quaderni di Sociologia, 81(LXIII): 99-109.
  24. Diakopoulos N. (2014). Algorithmic Accountability Reporting: On the Investigation of Black Boxes. Tow Center for Digital Journalism, Columbia University. DOI: 10.7916/D8ZK5TW
  25. Easterling K. (2016). Extrastatecraft: The power of infrastructure space. London: Verso.
  26. Echeverría B. (1998). La modernidad de lo barroco. Mexico City: Ed. Era.
  27. Eglash R., a cura di (2004). Appropriating technology: Vernacular science and social power. Minneapolis, US: University of Minnesota Press.
  28. Gago V. (2014). La razón neoliberal: Economías barrocas y pragmática popular. Buenos Aires: Tinta Limón Ediciones.
  29. Gandini A. (2019). Labour process theory and the gig economy. Human Relations, 72(6): 1039-56. DOI: 10.1177/001872671879000
  30. Heiland H. (2022). Neither timeless, nor placeless: Control of food delivery gig work via place-based working time regimes. Human Relations, 75(9): 1824-48. DOI: 10.1177/0018726721102528
  31. Huws U. (2014). Labor in the Global Digital Economy. The cybetariat comes to age. New York: Monthly Review Press.
  32. Jeffries F. (2011). Communication Commoning Amidst the New Enclosures: Reappropriating Infrastructure. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 35(4): 349-55. DOI: 10.1177/019685991141650
  33. Karlsson J. (2012). Organizational misbehaviour in the workplace: Narratives of dignity and resistance. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  34. Kellogg K.C., Valentine M.A., and Christin A. (2020). Algorithms at Work: The New Contested Terrain of Control. Academy of Management Annals, 14: 366-410.
  35. Kitchin R. (2017). Thinking critically about and researching algorithms. Information, Communication & Society, 20(1): 14-29. DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2016.115408
  36. Lakemann T., Lay J. (2019). Digital Platforms in Africa: The "Uberisation" of Informal Work. GIGA Focus | Africa, 7: 1-10.
  37. Lee M.K., Kusbit D., Metsky E., and Dabbish L. (2015). Working with Machines: The Impact of Algorithmic and Data-Driven Management on Human Workers. Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1: 1603-12. DOI: 10.1145/2702123.270254
  38. Lei Y.-W. (2021). Delivering Solidarity: Platform Architecture and Collective Contention in China’s Platform Economy. American Sociological Review, 86(2): 279-309. DOI: 10.1177/000312242097998
  39. Leszczynski A. (2020). Digital methods III: The digital mundane. Progress in Human Geography, 44(6): 1194-201. DOI: 10.1177/030913251988868
  40. Lobato R., Thomas J. (2015). The informal media economy. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
  41. Maffesoli M. (1989). La sociologia della vita quotidiana. Elementi di epistemologia. Studi di Sociologia, 27(3): 316-331.
  42. Marrone M., Finotto V. (2019). Challenging Goliath: Informal Unionism and Digital Platforms in the Food Delivery Sector. The Case of Riders Union Bologna. Partecipazione e Conflitto, 13(2): 691-716.
  43. Mendonça P., Kougiannou N.K. and Clark I. (2023). Informalization in gig food delivery in the UK: The case of hyper‐flexible and precarious work. Industrial Relations, 62(1): 60-77.
  44. Moore P.V. (2019). Quantified self in precarity: Work, technology and what counts. London: Routledge.
  45. Munck R. (2013). The Precariat: A view from the South. Third World Quarterly, 34(5): 747-62. doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2013.800751
  46. Neckel S. (2020). The refeudalization of modern capitalism. Journal of Sociology, 56(3): 472-86. DOI: 10.1177/144078331985790
  47. OECD, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, CAF Development Bank of Latin America and European Commission. (2020). Latin American Economic Outlook 2020: Digital Transformation for Building Back Better. Paris: OECD Publishing.
  48. Ong A. (2006). Neoliberalism as exception: Mutations in citizenship and sovereignty. Duhram, NC: Duke University Press.
  49. Oudshoorn N.E.J., Pinch T. (2008). User-technology relationships: Some Recent Developments. In: Hackett E.J., Amsterdamska O., Lynch M. and Wajcman J., a cura di, The handbook of science and technology studies. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
  50. Panimbang F. (2021) Solidarity across boundaries: a new practice of collectivity among workers in the app-based transport sector in Indonesia. Globalizations, 18(8): 1377-91. DOI: 10.1080/14747731.2021.188478
  51. Peck J., Phillips R. (2021). The Platform Conjuncture. Sociologica, 13(3): 73-99. DOI: 10.6092/ISSN.1971-8853/1161
  52. Qiu J.L., Gregg M. and Crawford K. (2014). Circuits of Labour: A Labour Theory of the iPhone Era. TripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique. Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society, 12(2): 564-581.
  53. Randolph G., Galperin H. (2019). New Opportunities in the Platform Economy: On-ramps to Formalization in the Global South (The Future of Work and Education for the Digital Age). G20-Insights. Available at: https://www.g20-insights.org/policy_briefs/new-opportunities-in-the-platform-economy-on-ramps-to-formalization-in-the-global-south/. Accessed on 20/01/2023.
  54. Rosenblat A., Stark L. (2016). Algorithmic Labor and Information Asymmetries: A Case Study of Uber’s Drivers. International Journal of Communication, 10: 3758-84.
  55. Rossiter N. (2016). Software, infrastructure, labor: A media theory of logistical nightmares. London: Routledge.
  56. Shapiro A. (2018). Between autonomy and control: Strategies of arbitrage in the “on-demand” economy. New Media & Society, 20(8): 2954-71. DOI: 10.1177/146144481773823
  57. Stark D., Pais I. (2021). Algorithmic Management in the Platform Economy. Sociologica, 14(3): 47-72. DOI: 10.6092/ISSN.1971-8853/1222
  58. Supiot A. (2013). The public–private relation in the context of today’s refeudalization. International Journal of Constitutional Law, 11(1): 129-145.
  59. Tassinari A., Maccarrone V. (2020). Riders on the storm. Workplace solidarity among gig economy couriers in Italy and the UK. Work, Employment and Society, 34(1): 35-54. DOI: 10.1177/095001701986295
  60. Thompson E.P. (1967). Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism. Past & Present, 38: 56-97.
  61. Thompson P. (1983). The nature of work: An introduction to debates on the labour process. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  62. van Doorn N. (2022). Liminal Precarity and Compromised Agency. Migrant experiences of gig work in Amsterdam, Berlin, and New York City. In: Ness I., a cura di, The Routledge Handbook of the Gig Economy. London: Routledge.
  63. Veen A., Barratt T. and Goods C. (2019). Platform-Capital’s ‘App-etite’ for Control: A Labour Process Analysis of Food-Delivery Work in Australia. Work, Employment and Society, 00(0): 1-19. DOI: 10.1177/095001701983691
  64. Wajcman J. (2006). New connections: Social studies of science and technology and studies of work. Work, Employment and Society, 20(4): 773-786. DOI: 10.1177/095001700606981
  65. Wajcman J. (2019). How Silicon Valley sets time. New Media & Society, 21(6): 1272-89. DOI: 10.1177/146144481882007
  66. Wood A.J. (2021). Workplace regimes: A sociological defence and elaboration. Work in the Global Economy, 1(1-2): 119-138. DOI: 10.1332/273241721X1628606908771
  67. Woodcock J. (2021) The fight against platform capitalism: An inquiry into the global struggles of the gig economy. London: University of Westminster Press.
  68. Zhao E.J. (2019). Digital China’s Informal Circuits: Platforms, Labour and Governance. London: Routledge.

Gianmarco Peterlongo, Unpacking informality in the gig-economy: ethnographic insights into platform capitalism and its baroque labour process in "SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO " 167/2023, pp 121-140, DOI: 10.3280/SL2023-167006