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The fragile ‘art’ of multi-apping: Resilience and snapping in the gig economy

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  • Cosmin Popan

    (Department of Sociology, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK)

Abstract

Doing food deliveries while working on multiple platforms at the same time is a common phenomenon amongst couriers, to the point that it has its own moniker: multi-apping. Workers extol the opportunity to earn better money, and also the skills needed to do so. Platforms are turning a blind eye since it allows them to argue in court that riders are self-employed. This entrepreneurial mindset has nevertheless drawbacks for couriers whose accounts can be deactivated if they are late or if customers report them. Understood as resilience against unpaid labour, multi-apping represents, in fact, work intensification. As platforms ‘sub-contract’ the risks and costs resulting from inefficiency in time use, it becomes the couriers’ responsibility to remove unpaid time through multi-apping. Rather than representing a form of resistance or subversion, multi-apping is not only the inevitable result of work intensification. In a vicious circle, it brings about more work intensification.

Suggested Citation

  • Cosmin Popan, 2024. "The fragile ‘art’ of multi-apping: Resilience and snapping in the gig economy," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 56(3), pages 802-815, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:56:y:2024:i:3:p:802-815
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X231209984
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Tom Barratt & Caleb Goods & Alex Veen, 2020. "‘I’m my own boss…’: Active intermediation and ‘entrepreneurial’ worker agency in the Australian gig-economy," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(8), pages 1643-1661, November.
    2. Pedro Mendonça & Nadia K. Kougiannou & Ian Clark, 2023. "Informalization in gig food delivery in the UK: The case of hyper‐flexible and precarious work," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(1), pages 60-77, January.
    3. Sheri Lynn Gibbings & Bronwyn Frey & Joshua Barker, 2022. "New frontiers in the platform economy: place, sociality, and the embeddedness of platform mobilities," Mobilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(5), pages 633-644, September.
    4. Mohammad Amir Anwar & Mark Graham, 2020. "Hidden transcripts of the gig economy: labour agency and the new art of resistance among African gig workers," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(7), pages 1269-1291, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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