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The bulk of contributions on digital business so far provide mainly descriptive analyses when it comes to the study of power-related phenomena within the gig economy. We particularly lack systematic, integrative studies which focus on interdependencies of power relations, labour conditions and business model efficiency, based on robust theoretical approaches which capture meso-level structures and micro-level dynamics of power simultaneously. Our conceptual paper addresses this gap by investigating power relations in platform arrangements, based on the framework of “circuits of power”. We use the case of the ridesharing platform Uber, which has caused debates in and beyond academia to illustrate how this framework, combined with concepts from labour process theory, behavioural economics and micro-politics, can be applied for a systematic analysis of the diversified portfolio of power-related control and influence mechanisms that are embedded in platforms’ software infrastructures. Departing from this, we examine how our approach can inform future research focused on assessing specific forms of management, organisation and work in the wider gig economy. Our discussion concentrates on a) the classification and comparison of heterogeneous forms of gig work; b) the assessment of labour-related problems; and c) power-related organisational dynamics or inertia in such settings. The latter point is related to the central question of why employee voice and resistance are rare in certain gig-work arrangements.

A “Circuits of Power”-based Perspective on Algorithmic Management and Labour in the Gig Economy