From Apathy to Algoactivism: Worker Resistance to Algorithmic Control in Food Delivery Platforms

Matthias Weber (), Ulrich Remus () and Alexander Jong ()
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Matthias Weber: University of Innsbruck
Ulrich Remus: University of Innsbruck
Alexander Jong: University of Innsbruck

A chapter in Transforming the Digitally Sustainable Enterprise, 2025, pp 131-147 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Platforms in the gig economy rely on algorithmic control to manage their workforce, but recent scientific evidence has shown that workers have begun to resist this control. Due to lacking focus and limited empirical data, the phenomenon of worker resistance to algorithmic control is still insufficiently understood. Based on a topic modeling approach with over 2 million text documents extracted from Reddit forums of different food-delivery platforms, we identify 14 resistance actions showing how food-delivery workers resist algorithmic control. Our study contributes to current research by expanding the understanding of resistance to algorithmic control in the gig economy, showing what resistant actions workers take, and discussing the concepts of individual opacity and collective knowledge as possible escalators and de-escalators of this resistance.

Keywords: Algorithmic control; Resistance; Gig economy; Topic modeling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:lnichp:978-3-031-80125-9_8

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-80125-9_8

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