Embodied Precariat and Digital Control in the “Gig Economy”: The Mobile Labor of Food Delivery Workers

Cosmin Popan

Journal of Urban Technology, 2024, vol. 31, issue 1, 109-128

Abstract: The promises of flexible work and instant deliveries promoted through food delivery apps are one of the latest trends within the “gig economy” and lay at the forefront of smart city agendas. This article focuses on the work undertaken by Deliveroo couriers to investigate how they embody, negotiate, and contest the “smartness” of the platform. Drawing on ethnographic research in London and Manchester, analysis of internal online communication, and interviews with workers, the article examines how competing understandings of “smartness” emerge in response to algorithmic management in the workplace. This paper conceptualizes two distinctive yet overlapping attitudes among couriers—entrepreneurialism and solidarity—and discusses their implications for the future of platform work.

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/10630732.2021.2001714 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:cjutxx:v:31:y:2024:i:1:p:109-128

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/cjut20

DOI: 10.1080/10630732.2021.2001714

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Urban Technology is currently edited by Richard E. Hanley

More articles in Journal of Urban Technology from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().