Putting Precarity Back to Production: A Case Study of Didi Kuaiche Drivers in the City of Nanjing, China

Hao Qi and Zhongjin Li

Review of Radical Political Economics, 2020, vol. 52, issue 3, 506-522

Abstract: This article addresses the questions of why and how precarity should be conceptualized in a Marxian framework on labor. We argue that precarity should be put back to production, which has a twofold meaning: first, we emphasize that the labor process is of crucial importance for conceptualizing precarity, and precarity in the labor process is interrelated with precarity in the labor market and labor reproduction. Second, precarity should be understood through the relationships of production, particularly through capital-labor conflict. Using one case study on Didi Kuaiche drivers in the city of Nanjing, China, we examine the nature of precarity in the flexible labor of the digital economy and present a more nuanced micronarrative of precarious work in the ride-hailing service.

Keywords: precarity; relations of production; labor process; Didi drivers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B51 J46 J53 J80 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:reorpe:v:52:y:2020:i:3:p:506-522

DOI: 10.1177/0486613419859030

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