The aforementioned dynamics apply to platform work, with different nuances due to algorithmic management, increased isolation, and the nature of the workplace. The core narrative of platform economy firms involves the entanglement of flexibility and autonomy of the workers, and a more horizontal organisational model. This narrative is informed by the self-entrepreneurial view and the individual capacity to succeed. However, the literature on labour process theory applied to gig work has debunked this narrative by analysing the concrete dynamics of this work and the lived experiences of the workers. It has been foregrounded how the algorithmic management of digital labour platforms, under a technosolutionist umbrella, increases the polarisation of power between labour and capital, in favour of the latter, and tends to reduce the workers’ room for agency. This polarisation is achieved through an asymmetrical distribution of information (Rosenblat, 2018; Tassinari & Maccarone, 2020) and by black-boxing the algorithm.
It is widely agreed that the “misrecognition of digital labour plays a crucial role in the platform business model, making labour cheaper, exiting traditional IR systems, and managing a wide workforce that operates with high levels of turnover. By using self-employment, platforms avoid the recognition of social rights associated with wage labour” (Quondamatteo & Marrone, 2023, p. 257). The (mis)classification of workers as self-employed or independent contractors instead of employees cannot be separated from the algorithmic management of work ondemand via apps, as it allows digital platforms to disguise the de facto employment relationship by discharging digital platforms from employment responsibilities. In this regard, “Algorithmic management and worker (mis)classification are therefore key to making the platform workforce cheap, precarious and interchangeable – and therefore, ‘on-demand’” (Gebrial, 2022, p. 5).
This organisation aims to make an increasing share of the “relative surplus population” (Ivi) disposable on-demand in a technocratic way.
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G. PIRINA