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‘My Life Is More Valuable Than This’: Understanding Risk among On-Demand Food Couriers in Edinburgh

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  • Karen Gregory

Abstract

Drawing from the social study of the gig economy and platform labour and from the sociology of risk, this article explores how on-demand food couriers in Edinburgh, Scotland, construct and represent work-related risks. By taking the gig economy’s contested and contentious status of ‘self-employment’ as a starting point, this article positions couriers as experts of their own work process and draws on in-depth interviews with 25 couriers to illustrate how platformed labour creates a range of risks, including physical risk and bodily harm, financial risks and epistemic risks. To negotiate these risks, couriers use a range of strategies, including privatising, normalising and minimising risks and by forging new communities of support . While some risks can be negotiated by recourse to the private, entrepreneurial, or ‘choosing’ self, interview data illustrate how algorithmically managed work creates uncertainty and confounds the issue of choice by obscuring the work process and associated risk probabilities.

Suggested Citation

  • Karen Gregory, 2021. "‘My Life Is More Valuable Than This’: Understanding Risk among On-Demand Food Couriers in Edinburgh," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 35(2), pages 316-331, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:35:y:2021:i:2:p:316-331
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017020969593
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Narayanan, Santhanakrishnan & Antoniou, Constantinos, 2022. "Electric cargo cycles - A comprehensive review," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 278-303.
    2. Philippa Collins & Joe Atkinson, 2023. "Worker voice and algorithmic management in post-Brexit Britain," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 29(1), pages 37-52, February.
    3. Uchiyama, Yosuke & Furuoka, Fumitaka & Md. Akhir, Md. Nasrudin, 2022. "Gig Workers, Social Protection and Labour Market Inequality: Lessons from Malaysia," Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, vol. 56(3), pages 165-184.
    4. Bo-Yi Lee, 2024. "Neither Employee nor Contractor: A Case Study of Employment Relations between Riders and Platform-Based Food-Delivery Firms in Taiwan," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 38(1), pages 122-139, February.
    5. Aditya Ray, 2024. "Coping with crisis and precarity in the gig economy: ‘Digitally organised informality’, migration and socio-spatial networks among platform drivers in India," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 56(4), pages 1227-1244, June.

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