Mobile workers, contingent labour: Migration, the gig economy and the multiplication of labour

The article takes the surprising exit of the food delivery platform Deliveroo from Berlin as a starting point to analyse the relationship between migration and the gig economy. In Berlin and many cities across the globe, migrant workers are indispensable to the operations of digital platforms such as Uber, Helpling, or Deliveroo. The article uses in-depth ethnographic and qualitative research to show how the latter's exit from Berlin provides an almost exemplary picture of why urban gig economy platforms are strongholds of migrant labour, while at the same time, demonstrating the very contingency of this form of work. The article analyses the specific reasons why digital platforms are particularly open to migrants and argues that the very combination of new forms of algorithmic management and hyper-flexible forms of employment that is characteristic of gig economy platforms is also the reason why these platforms are geared perfectly toward the exploitation of migrant labour. This allows the analysis of digital platforms in the context of stratified labour markets and situates them within a long history of contingent labour that is closely intertwined with the mobility of labour.Peer Reviewe

Standardization and Heterogenization: The Automation of Management and the Multiplication of Labour

Algorithmic management is increasingly used to (semi-)automatically organise, measure and control labour in many sectors and industries. Based on empirical research in the (online and location-bound) gig economy, the paper argues that this digital automation of management allows for the quick and flexible inclusion of a broad range of workers in very diverse situations into production. This is shown, firstly, by the example of crowdwork platforms and their ability to integrate diverse and spatially distributed workers into labour processes. Secondly, the paper analyses the role of migrant labour for the urban gig economy and argues, that here, too, digital technologies and algorithmic management are to be understood as being part and parcel of a multifaceted process of the heterogenization of workforces. This particular effect and quality of algorithmic management and digital stand-ardization is conceptually analysed in the framework of a multiplication of labour

Digitalisierung, Raum und Konflikt: Kommentar zu Yannick Ecker, Tatiana López und Nicolas Schlitz „Wichtiger denn je! Ein Plädoyer für eine intensivere Auseinandersetzung mit Arbeit in der kritischen Stadtforschung“

Dieser Debattenbeitrag widmet sich räumlichen Aspekten in der Transformation der Arbeit. An Beispielen digitaler Technologien, der Neuzusammensetzung der Arbeit und Auseinandersetzungen in der urbanen Plattform-Ökonomie wird argumentiert, dass die vielschichtigen Arbeitskämpfe eine zentrale Triebkraft in der Entwicklung der Plattform-Ökonomie darstellen. Damit wird vorgeschlagen, Konflikt als einen zentralen empirischen und konzeptuellen Ausgangspunkt zur Analyse von kapitalistischer Entwicklung und Raumproduktion im Sinne einer Labour Geography zu verwenden

Platform Labour: Contingent Histories and New Technologies

Peer Reviewe

Zurück in die Zukunft: Digitale Heimarbeit

Heimarbeit und Stücklohn: Vieles an digitalen Plattformen hat eine lange Geschichte – und verweist damit auch auf geschlechtsspezifische Ausbeutung. Welche Rolle spielen Genderaspekte in der Care- und Crowdarbeit

INVESTIGATING PLATFORMS. A CRITICAL LEXICON

The aim of this article is to propose an interpretative grid and a critical lexicon through which it is possible to frame in theoretical and methodological terms the disruptions and tendencies of platform urbanism and the main platform labour challenges. The article is organized along seven keywords as a set of tools for expanding and enriching the current debate on these transformations. We will start framing main features of platforms in terms of space and time organization, and then consider their role in social infrastructure as well as their impact on labour organization, not only in terms of value production but also in terms of production of inequalities and resistances. Finally, we will highlight how political categories as sovereignty must be reconsidered due to platforms expansion.El objetivo de este artículo es proponer una retícula interpretativa y un léxico crítico a través de los cuales sea posible enmarcar en términos teóricos y metodológicos las disrupciones y tendencias del urbanismo de plataforma y los principales retos laborales de la plataforma. El artículo se organiza en torno a siete palabras clave como un conjunto de herramientas para ampliar y enriquecer el debate actual sobre estas transformaciones. Empezaremos enmarcando las principales características de las plataformas en términos de organización del espacio y el tiempo, y luego consideraremos su papel en la infraestructura social, así como su impacto en la organización del trabajo, no sólo en términos de producción de valor, sino también en términos de producción de desigualdades y resistencias. Por último, destacaremos cómo categorías políticas como la soberanía deben ser reconsideradas debido a la expansión de las plataformas

Cities between digital innovation and platform labour

In this final section we will consider the impact of digital technologies on urban spaces.On one side, this means how high tech giants and platform firms are establishing in urbanspaces as infrastructures for data accumulation and services\u2019 development, influencingnot only urban planning but also economic and social fabric. On the other side, severalurban actors \u2014from municipalities to dwellers\u2014 move towards entrepreneurialism oftenusing platforms and data. These processes pose new challenges to local governance interms of regulation and participation that we are going to explore in this paper.In the first paragraph, we will frame the relationship between urban spaces and digitaltechnologies referring to the concept of smart city. In the second, we will focus on aspecific subjectivity emerging in such background, the so-called urban entrepreneur. Inthe third, we will sketch challenges and potentialities for local governance in regulatingsuch phenomena

Platform urbanism: Labour, migration and the transformation of urban space

Der Beitrag analysiert, wie digitale Plattformen urbanes Arbeiten und Leben ebenso verändern wie die gelebte Räumlichkeit und die materielle Architektur der Stadt. Davon sind nicht nur Arbeitsverhältnisse berührt, sondern auch alltägliche Formen und Praktiken von Mobilität, Konsum oder Reproduktion. Basierend auf umfassenden ethnografischen Forschungen beschreiben wir erstens den Aufstieg der Plattformarbeit in Berlin, insbesondere am Beispiel von Uber, Deliveroo und Helpling. Wir nehmen neue Formen algorithmischer Organisation, Kontrolle und Überwachung von Arbeit im Stadtraum in den Blick und zeigen, dass Plattformarbeit primär migrantisch ist. Davon ausgehend skizzieren wir zweitens die Umrisse eines entstehenden Plattform-Urbanismus. Das umfasst sowohl ein Verständnis der Räume und Geografien digitaler Plattformen als auch eine theoretische Perspektivierung des Begriffs. Drittens betonen wir, dass kritische Analysen des emergenten Plattform-Urbanismus zeigen können, wie Plattformen darauf abzielen, unverzichtbare urbane Infrastrukturen zu werden. Allerdings zeigt sich, dass diese Infrastrukturwerdung urbaner Plattformen kein reibungsloser Prozess ist, sondern politisch und ökonomisch umkämpft.The contribution analyses how digital platforms transform labour and life just as well lived space and material architecture of the contemporary city. This concerns not only labour relations, but also everyday forms and practices of mobility, consumption or reproduction. Based on extensive ethnographic research, we describe, firstly, the rise of platform labour in Berlin, with a focus on Uber, Deliveroo and Helpling. We analyse new forms of algorithmic organization, control and measure of labour in urban space and describe platform labour as primarily migrant work. Secondly, we sketch the outlines of an emerging platform urbanism, which includes an understanding of the spaces and geographies of digital platforms as well as a theoretical perspectivation of the term. And thirdly, we emphasize that critical analyses of emerging platform urbanism can help to understand how platforms aim to become indispensable urban infrastructures. This infrastructural emergence of urban platforms is not a smooth process, however, but is politically and economically contested

PLUS.WP2 Qualitative analysis of platform labor in Berlin

This set contains materials from PLUS project field work analysis on platform labour in Berlin. In particular, there are qualitative interviews to Airbnb, Helpling and Uber workers. The same interviews have been coded with Nvivo software and analyzed. Moreover, a final focus group with platform workers had been organized to validate the results of the investigation. Due to Ethics&Privacy regulations applicable at the Leuphana University Lüneburg (for data collected until 31.03.2021) and at the Humboldt University of Berlin (for data collected from 01.04.2021), the set is under restrictions: data can be shared only with PLUS partners for the duration of the PLUS project (until 31.03.2022); from 01.04.2022 access allowed only for Berlin team members