Revealing the Voices of Resistance: A Q-Methodology Study on Platform Workers in the Gig Economy

While algorithmic management generates several benefits for platform companies, it emanates several issues for workers, which they perceive as threats triggering different forms of resistance behaviors. Although recent studies identify these issues and resistance behaviors, the perspective of the actual subject of resistance, i.e., the gig worker or group of gig workers with resistant behaviors, is yet not well understood. By adopting a Q-methodology mixed-method approach this study tries to identify resistance types of gig workers, explore their characteristics and similarities, and therefore give a voice to the subject of resistance. Based on 21 threats and 14 resistance behaviors, identified in a literature review, we develop a Q-set containing 35 statements, which will be used for data collection with the goal of revealing the richness of the resistance phenomenon in the context of work in the gig economy

Platform Labour: Contingent Histories and New Technologies

Peer Reviewe

Understanding Driver Agency in RideSharing

Agency is an important human characteristic that users of automated complex technologies are usually denied. This affects the user's experience leading to decreased satisfaction and productivity. In this paper, we consider the ridesharing context and interviewed 7 drivers to understand the controls that would improve the agency they feel. The results show that they desire transparency, community and an effective ability to seek redress

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

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

Measuring Workers’ Perceptions of Algorithmic Control: Item Development and Content Validity Assessment

Algorithmic control (AC) refers to organizations’ use of increasingly intelligent algorithms and related digital technology to steer worker behavior. While previous studies have identified and conceptualized various forms of AC in both platform and traditional work contexts, the presented conceptualizations lack measurability. This key shortcoming hampers further empirical research on the current use of AC and its manifold consequences. In this study, we report on the item development process for a scale for measuring perceived AC from a workers’ perspective. Following well-established approaches, an initial item pool was developed. The items were discussed and refined with the support of five academic experts and three AC workers. A subsequent rating study with 98 workers was conducted to ensure the content validity of all items. On this basis, the study at hand presents a comprehensive set of items for both AC in general and its seven sub-dimensions

Algorithmic Control in Platform and Traditional Work Settings: An Updated Conceptual Framework

Algorithmic control (AC) is an emerging phenomenon shaping the future of work. While AC is already well established in the platform economy, it is also gaining traction in traditional organizations. Given that AC represents a new phenomenon, it still suffers from a relatively immature conceptual basis. Here, an up-and-coming conceptual AC framework is the so-called “6R” framework by Kellogg et al. (2020). This framework, however, has not been conceptually and empirically tested yet, which is the focus of the study at hand. To test the 6R framework, we use a combination of a literature review (top-down) and interviews (bottom-up). Our study sets forth to refine and extend the framework, resulting in an updated 5RSM framework of AC. The proposed framework represents an updated conceptualization of AC, applicable to both platform and traditional work settings, and lays the foundation for future research, including scale development

Uncovering Digital Platforms’ Ethics and Politics: The Case of Airbnb

The paper deploys the disclosive computer ethics (DCE) approach to reconstruct the ethics and politics of one of the sharing economy’s flagships—Airbnb. I investigate Airbnb’s technical design to identify the moral and political values that are embedded in the platform’s technology. I then analyze the platform’s ethics and politics towards a generalization of relevant ethical and political aspects by reconnecting them to the mechanisms, operations, rationales, and ideologies of the sharing economy in general. The paper contributes to the existing literature by linking between the ethics and politics of digital platforms and their technical design, using the case study of Airbnb. Additionally, it explores Airbnb as a specific platform technology with unique ethical and political values. Thus, the paper refutes the neutrality thesis and similar claims made by sharing economy platforms. Finally, the paper makes a methodological contribution to the literature on the ethics and politics of technology. It develops a practical DCE research methodology for uncovering the values, ethics, and politics of digital technologies

Communicating mental health through graphic design – Investigating the role of graphic design for the facilitation of communication regarding mental health data

Once seen as a taboo subject, the rise in mental health issues and awareness of mental health issues has seen the subject matter gain more social and medical interest by professionals and the general public. However, for those who suffer with mental health issues, it can often be hard to notice when your change in mood is happening and what might have been causing it until it’s too late and professional help is required. This multi-disciplinary research project utilises autoethnography and existing literature to explore mental health from the researcher’s perspective, to help initiate further research using a practice-based, research by design approach to explore how graphic design can communicate a state of mental health to an end user. This research looks at how mental health data can be recorded and re-communicated back to a user to help them define their mood and find ways to help them improve their mental wellbeing. This has been done through designing a participant response task that required daily recorded analysis of how the user was feeling and the reasons why. This paired with utilising semi-structured exit interviews allows us to gain a better understanding of how the process worked and could be refined. The research argues that a method in which users can record their mental health data and review their input can look to have a positive effect on identifying a change in mood and understanding why that might have been. This response task informs the user of their current state of wellbeing, allowing them to review this and encourages them to take action and offers support before their mental health deteriorates

How do we speak about algorithms and algorithmic media futures? Using vignettes and scenarios in a citizen council on data-driven media personalisation

‘New’ media and algorithmic rules underlying many emerging technologies present particular challenges in fieldwork, because the opacity of their design, and, sometimes, their real or perceived status as ‘not quite here yet’ – makes speaking about these challenging in the field. In this article, we use insights from a three-stage citizens council investigating citizens’ views on developments in data-driven media personalisation to reflect on the potentials of using future-orientated vignettes and scenarios in data collection on user experiences, expectations and the ethics of algorithms. We present the possibilities and potentials of using vignettes as part of a data collection approach in user-centric algorithm studies which invites users’ contextual experiences of algorithms but also enables more normative reflections on what good looks like in contemporary datafied societies