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The active production of consent for employment precarity and the euphemisation of coercion in platform economies: The case of food delivery riders

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  • Sofía Pérez-de-Guzmán Padrón

    (Universidad de Cádiz, Facultad de Ciencias del Trabajo, Spain)

  • Amparo Serrano-Pascual

    (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, TRANSOC Institute, Spain)

  • Marcela Iglesias-Onofrio

    (Universidad de Cádiz, Facultad de Ciencias del Trabajo, Spain)

Abstract

The mobilisation of new distance-based technologies that permit the governance of platform workers’ behaviour constitutes a watershed in the organisation of work and a transformation of the grammar of wage-earning society. Employing a qualitative methodology, this article analyses Spanish riders’ (delivery couriers) experiences of these psychopolitical mechanisms. The results show that the neoliberal and entrepreneurial dispositive deployed by digital platforms induces new rationalities of self-governance that are characterised by productive self-optimisation and self-surveillance. However, the analysis also found that the interpellation of the dispositive and its technologies of subjectivation were not homogeneous across all of the study participants. The article describes the characteristics and argumentative positions of three groups of riders whose sociostructural position shaped their experiences and engagement with the platforms as well as resistance to control mechanisms and disciplinary processes.

Suggested Citation

  • Sofía Pérez-de-Guzmán Padrón & Amparo Serrano-Pascual & Marcela Iglesias-Onofrio, 2024. "The active production of consent for employment precarity and the euphemisation of coercion in platform economies: The case of food delivery riders," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 45(4), pages 1040-1066, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:45:y:2024:i:4:p:1040-1066
    DOI: 10.1177/0143831X231219465
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