Open AccessPLATFORMIZING DELIVERY WORKERS' EXPERIENCES: BUILDING WORKER-OWNED PLATFORMS IN BRAZIL, SPAIN AND FRANCE
Author(s) -
Rafael Grohmann
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
selected papers of internet research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2162-3317
DOI - 10.5210/spir.v2021i0.11925
Subject(s) - work (physics) , commons , process (computing) , social media , scale (ratio) , business , public relations , economic growth , political science , engineering , economics , geography , computer science , law , mechanical engineering , cartography , operating system
The article aims to analyze the emergence of worker-owned platforms,specifically delivery workers’ experiences, as one of the laboratories of platform labor andthe circulation of workers’ struggles Drawing on interviews with six cases in threedifferent countries (Spain, France and Brazil), the research highlights the commonalities,specificities and challenges of platformizing delivery workers’ experiences in differentcountries. The analysis consider following dimensions: productive processes and workorganization, technological challenges and building platforms, use of social media tocommunicate with and organize workers, and the future of worker-owned experiences. Theinitiatives had very different trajectories. In Spain, some cooperatives were born fromunion struggles. In France, we saw a strong relationship with CoopCycle, a federation ofdelivery co-ops that provides its own software based on the principles of digital commons.And in Brazil, small collectives and co-ops that still depend on social media platforms toexecute their work are emerging. Despite different contexts, there are commonalities, suchas the low number of workers, the central role of social media for communicating andorganizing work, and the emergence of cooperation among cooperatives, which shows that scaledoes not need to be a standard in platform economies. The conclusions point out there is anongoing and emerging process that can be the beginning of a broader process of reinventinglocal economic circuits of production and consumption that involves digital platforms forthe common good.