Resisting algorithmic control: Understanding the rise and variety of platform worker mobilisations

What is it about?

Algorithms are seen as effective for managing workers. Literature focuses mainly on the functioning and impact of algorithmic control on workers' experiences and conditions. The ways in which platform workers have organised collectively to regain control have received far less scholarly attention. This paper addresses this gap by making sense of the mobilisation dynamics of two platform-work categories: crowdwork (Amazon Mechanical Turk) and work on-demand (food-delivery couriers).

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Why is it important?

The absence or the marginal intervention of traditional labour actors notwithstanding, new forms of conflict have been arising within the algorithmic control-led world of platform work. Theoretically, this study has developed an analytical explanation that goes beyond the ‘usual’ IR factors to stress the centrality of alternative constellations of actors and resources.