The Algorithm Is Not My Boss Anymore: technological appropriation and (new) media strategies in Riders x Derechos and Mensakas (original) (raw)
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2021
This thematic briefing analyzes the Ley Rider, a Spanish decree-law that regulates work on digital platforms, focusing on delivery services. Its provisions bring the presumption of employment relationship between delivery drivers and platforms and innovate by guaranteeing the worker, regardless of the sector, the right to information regarding the rules and decisions made based on algorithmic systems. Seeking to understand the process of social dialogue that gave rise to this decree-law and its repercussions, the antecedents of the agreement resulting from the process and the provisions of the legal text were analyzed. Enjoy your reading!
Media Strategies of Labor Platforms: Circulation of Meanings in Social Media of Companies in Brazil
2021
This article aims to analyze how ride-hailing and delivery platforms in Brazil produce their ethos on social media in the context of the first national strike of workers in the pandemic. We argue, based on the notion of circulation of meanings, how the construction of the platform’s ethos is a sign element of class struggles, and a dimension of the role of communication in the platformization of labor. We conducted a content analysis on social media (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube) from two delivery (iFood and Rappi) and two ride-hailing platforms (Uber and 99), the largest of the country. The categories are: “pandemic and health” (contextual dimension in relation to the pandemic); “citizenship and diversity” (recurrent dimension in the discourse of platforms, in line with the literature in the area), “relations with brands and influencers” (visibility labor of the platforms with specific stakeholders) and “workers’ representations” (as a central element of the sign dimens...
Social Rights and Work on Digital Platforms in Brazil: The Case of “Breque dos Apps”
Sociology Study, 2023
The movement known as "Breque dos Apps" was a social movement of a striker nature, which took place in Brazil in July 2020. Such movement was organized by workers which provided services to delivery apps (like iFood, Loggi, Uber Eats and Rappi). They demanded better working conditions and social protection measures, since they were out of the protection of the Brazilian legal system. The reason for this lies in the fact that there is a debate about the classification of these workers-the maximum expression of the gig economy-as employees under Brazilian legislation. As a result, and with the exponential growth in the use of these applications due to the Covid-19 pandemic, thousands of workers were left on the fringes of any social protection. This study aims to analyze the aforementioned movement and its demands within the paradigm of social rights, especially the ones regarding collective representation, which are guaranteed by the Brazilian Constitution. In terms of methodology, the content analysis method will be applied, considering that the established objective presupposes the study of theoretical and legal texts that allow the structuring of concepts applicable to the theme. The research technique to be adopted will be the analysis of indirect documentation, that is, literature review, to be carried out through bibliographic and documentary research, focused on literature and legal texts related to the topic.
2016
Recent discussions and research about the uses of digital social media platforms by social movements and protest organizations have raised questions about threats and challenges represented by these technologies. There is also a debate on whether digital social media platforms can contribute to establish and strengthen long-standing oppositional groups and structural change. In this context, this article analyses how the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (MST) experiences and views the use of digital social media platforms in its communicative processes. Based on interviews and observations, the article shows how MST militants present ambivalent views towards platforms such as Facebook and Twitter and towards the dynamics of digital communication. Conclusions point that the main concern is threat to the organic collective character of the movement posed by individualistic digital social media platforms. Different from contemporary protest organisations, MST sees a clear separation between the movement and its media. The goal is to appropriate of and control media technologies, which brings many difficulties when dealing with digital social media platforms.
Capitalism in the Platform Age, 2024
This paper addresses the topic of platformisation of labour by investigating two case studies: Uber in Lisbon and Deliveroo in Bologna. According to the theoretical frameworks of variegated capitalism and supported by the analysis of empirical evidence stemming from the ground, the authors outline the hypothesis of a variegated platformisation, that is, the persistence of (dis)continuities in the operations of digital platforms between different socio-institutional contexts. This means that while, on one hand, the platform business model’s logic of accumulation and value extraction is the same regardless of the contexts, on the other side platforms reveal a strong ability to move in (and between) the specific socio-institutional-political regulatory framework. By following the algorithm, which is adopting a multi-sided ethnographic approach investigating how algorithms change across time, space and sectors, the paper will stress both similarities and differences between platform labour process in Deliveroo in Bologna and Uber in Portugal. Finally, while on one hand the conclusion will focus on how institution (still) matter, crucially influencing the development of platforms, on the other it will be stressed the necessity of a more nuanced approach to understand the uneven development of platform capitalism.
The article deals with the topic of new technologies (ICT), their influence in social mobilizations and its impact in the Spanish press analysing two facts. During the history, some technologies (such us fix telephone or Internet) have created new uses which were not expected by society. Moreover, in last few years we have witnessed different situations where we have seen the power of mobile phones to mobilize social communities: the reaction against the Popular Party after 11 th March, 2004 in Madrid or the social mobilizations against Barcelona City Hall, because of the prohibition of drinking alcohol in the streets on 17 th March, 2006 can be good examples in Spain. Hence, we propose an article in which we analyse whether the main Catalan dailies (La Vanguardia, Avui, El Punt and El Periódico) gave importance to the influence of ICT (above all, cell phones) during that two events we pointed out before.
The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 2022
A growing number of recent analyses have focused on the impact of digital platforms on the reconfiguration of markets and work conditions-known as the 'platform economy' (Kenney and Zysman, 2016; Schor et al., 2020), 'sharing economy' (Schor and Atwood-Charles, 2017), 'gig economy' (Vallas and Schor, 2020) or 'platform capitalism' (Srnicek, 2017). The companies that own these platforms are advocating a new economy and work relations based on 'sharing' and 'community' (Ravenelle, 2017; Kirchner and Schüssler, 2019), hiding the fact that platforms evolve from simple digital tools for professional activities and market intermediaries between supply and demand to create a new category of immaterial and impalpable employers (Aloisi, 2016; Friedman, 2014). The market power and information asymmetries of these platforms raise questions about the emergence of the atypical forms of labour that they generate and the regulation of working conditions that they impose (
Recent discussions and research about the uses of digital social media platforms by social movements and protest organizations have raised questions about threats and challenges represented by these technologies. There is also a debate on whether digital social media platforms can contribute to establish and strengthen long-standing oppositional groups and structural change. In this context, this article analyses how the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (MST) experiences and views the use of digital social media platforms in its communicative processes. Based on interviews and observations, the article shows how MST militants present ambivalent views towards platforms such as Facebook and Twitter and towards the dynamics of digital communication. Conclusions point that the main concern is threat to the organic collective character of the movement posed by individualistic digital social media platforms. Different from contemporary protest organisations, MST sees a clear separation between the movement and its media. The goal is to appropriate of and control media technologies, which brings many difficulties when dealing with digital social media platforms.
South Atlantic Quarterly , 2021
Platform capitalism has enabled digital platforms to bring producers, consumers, and workers in a multisided marketplace with the purpose of collecting data. The resulting commodification of materiality and sociality in the digital sphere and the proprietary control of data open opportunities for value creation and realization, quite distinct from the value propositions of industrial manufacturing. As the relationship between value generation and human labor becomes tenuous or invisible, management strategies to appropriate value extends beyond labor control to direct appropriation. This article explores how labor responds to such devices of control and appropriation by digital platforms. Using the typological approach, the study argues that labor resistance emerges as a direct response to the management strategies of platforms in the form of granular resistance, data activism, trade unions and workers’ organization, and collective ownership.